Movie captures deadly confrontation at Greenville car dealership
Bounty Hunters in Texas
Posted: May thirty one 2017 04:03PM CDT
Updated: May thirty one 2017 09:33PM CDT
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GREENVILLE, Texas – Cell phone movie shows the confrontation inbetween two bounty hunters and a fugitive inwards a Greenville car dealership Tuesday that left all three guys dead.
Fidel Garcia and Gabriel Bernal were licensed private investigators from Corpus Christi hired to track down Ramon Michael Hutchinson for an outstanding drug case in Minnesota.
The bounty hunters confronted Hutchinson, who was also armed, inwards the showroom of the Nissan of Greenville dealership just after seven p.m.
The city released cell phone movie in which the scuffle inbetween the bounty hunters and the armed fugitive can be seen before several rounds of shots ring out.
The movie shows Garcia and Bernal confront Hutchinson in an office with his gf and a dealership employee inwards when the gunfire began. An employee was also with two customers in the office right next to them, but none of them were hurt.
A woman at the dealership called nine hundred eleven while hiding in the bathroom.
«Please hurry,» she told the nine hundred eleven dispatcher. «I hear a woman screaming.»
The bounty hunters were after Hutchison for failing to show up in court on a felony drug charge. But his record shows more violent charges, including assaulting a police officer and disarming a police officer.
The investigators were hired by a company called U.S. Fugitive Apprehension of Minnesota. One of their bail investigators, Stew Peters, said Garcia was one of their go-to professionals.
«Loved his life in Corpus Christi, lived a modest and discreet life,» Peters said about Garcia. «Hard working, dedicated and sultry bounty hunter. He always found his man.»
Rick Ford, the holder of the dealership, said the bounty hunters came into the showroom and identified themselves as federal agents. He said they waited there for several hours for Hutchinson to demonstrate up.
Ford said he and his employees didn’t give the boys permission to be in the showroom but never asked them to leave or to demonstrate their badges.
Peters told us Garcia was a licensed professional and would not have misrepresented himself as a federal agent.
«Absolutely not. We’ve known Fidel for over a decade,» Peters said. «We certainly would have severed ties many, many years ago if we thought there was a risk of that happening ever.»
Greenville police say none of their officers or other law enforcement were involved in the shooting.
In Texas, there is indeed no license for a ‘bounty hunter.` They are licensed private investigators and have to have prior law enforcement practice or investigative practice, take numerous classes, go through an FBI background check and pass a state exam.
But even with that kind of practice, numerous private investigators said the bounty hunters in this shooting may have made some poor decisions.
Several questioned Garcia and Bernal`s decision to confront their suspect in a crowded workplace.
Michael Phariss manages private investigators licensed to bounty hunt for the Texas Response Group. He said he would`ve done things differently just knowing the basics of what happened.
“The very first thing, of course, we would do is notify local law enforcement of what we are doing, what’s going on,» he said. «The best thing to do is actually sit in the car. See and wait.»
It’s not clear if the investigators notified police before approaching Hutchinson.
Phariss is also troubled by the fact that the employees said the bounty hunters identified themselves as federal agents, making it a crime.
The thickest problem Phariss has is where the investigators determined to arrest Hutchinson.
“Let them leave and get them on the way out,» he said. «That way, you have very few people around that can actually be injured or hurt. And you can actually control the situation a lot more effectively.”
Catherine Smit-Torrez is also a private investigator and was private friends with Garcia. She was on the Board of the Texas Association of Licensed Investigators along with him. She says he was a professional, engaged to be married and doubts that he would have misrepresented himself.
“He had the persona that, ‘I’m a big teddy bear and anybody can trust coming and talking to me,`» she said.
Bounty hunters typically collect ten percent of whatever the amount of the bond is that the suspect skips out on. In this case, it was a $50,000 bond that was worth $Five,000 to Garcia and Bernal.