Silke Jasso
A shootout on Tuesday evening that took place inside a car dealership left two bounty hunters and a fugitive dead after harrowing moments full of the sounds of gunshots, screams and shattering windows. All of this was captured on video. Authorities say that the two men, Fidel Garcia Jr. and Gabriel Bernal, were tracking 49-year-old Ramon Hutchinson, who was wanted on charges of assaulting an officer and possession of narcotics, when they entered a car dealership. In the video, the bounty hunters are seen holding Hutchinson at gunpoint; they wrestle with him for a moment before shots begin ringing out. In the room adjacent to where they’re confronting Hutchinson, two customers and an employee seem to be negotiating a deal; the group sprints away as the two bounty hunters draw their guns.
Videos by Rare
RELATED: Seven bounty hunters could face time after they slipped up horrifically outside a Wal-Mart
Rick Ford, who owns the Texas dealership, told CBS that Garcia and Bernal entered his establishment and claimed that they were federal agents. The pair were dressed in plainclothes, and a few minutes after entering the dealership, they attempted to arrest Hutchinson. However, the fugitive wasn’t going quietly, and the close-range shootout ensued.
The two bounty hunters were tipped off by a colleague, Stew Peters, who is a bail investigator in Minnesota with a company called U.S. Fugitive Recovery and Extradition. The Associated Press reported that Peters had been searching for Hutchinson since March when he skipped on his bail. He noted that he’s known Garcia for over a decade and said he believes it’s unlikely that the bounty hunter misrepresented himself as a federal agent. His company hunts as many as 50 fugitives at a time and works with dozens of bounty hunters.
RELATED: In Idaho, it’s harder to become a barber than a bounty hunter
All three men were pronounced dead at the scene, but nobody else in the dealership was struck by the gunfire. Authorities reported that as many as 20 shots were fired in the brief confrontation.
