Shootout at Car Dealership Captured on Video
Two bounty hunters and the Minnesota fugitive they were tracking are dead after a gunfight in a Greenville, Texas car dealership on Tuesday night, reports Fox News.
Fidel Garcia and Gabriel Bernal, from Corpus Christi-based FNG Security, were tracking fugitive Ramon Michael Hutchinson, a 49-year-old man from St. Paul, Minnesota. Hutchinson was wanted by Hennepin County, Minnesota, for felony charges of disarming a police officer, fourth-degree assault of an officer, and felony first-degree narcotics possession. He skipped out on a court appearance in March, forfeiting a $50,000 bail bond.
Following a tip, (a $1,000 reward had been offered for information leading to Hutchinson’s arrest,) Garcia and Bernal staked out a Nissan dealership in Greenville, where “a woman associated with Hutchinson had her car….” Hutchinson eventually showed up, and the two private investigators drew their sidearms and cornered their quarry in one of the side offices. Unfortunately for all concerned, the fugitive had his own heater, carried in violation of both Texas and Federal firearms laws and drew in response. A cellphone video shot by an unidentified witness and shared by the Greenville Police Department shows part of the confrontation and subsequent shoot out.
Nissan of Greenville issued a statement on its website indicating that it would be closed until Friday, and that no customers or employees had been injured during the fight.
It seems odd that the bounty hunters would confront the fugitive in a public place, with innocent bystanders around, and even more so when (based on the video,) it appears that he’s trapped with his back against the wall in one of the car dealership’s small sales offices. The story gets even more concerning. The dealership’s owner, Rick Ford, has already stated in multiple interviews that Garcia and Bernal represented themselves as federal agents in conversations with Nissan of Greenville’s employees.
“We did not give them permission, but we also didn’t tell them they had to leave. We were told they were federal agents, so we didn’t ask them to leave,” Mr. Ford said in an interview with Fox 4 News of Dallas-Ft. Worth. It is unclear whether or not the two investigators notified local law enforcement about the situation.
Garcia was one of the “go to professionals” for U.S. Fugitive Apprehensions in Minnesota for these sorts of services. Stew Peters, a bail investigator, called Garcia a “licensed professional” who would not have misrepresented himself as a federal agent. “Absolutely not,” he said in an interview with Fox 4.
