Family friends of a man shot and killed during an apparent carjacking are speaking out.
Dallas police said the shooting happened in Northwest Dallas while the victim was on a FaceTime call. The victim was identified as 34-year-old Juan Hernandez Esparza.
Dallas Police responded to the call on Aug. 18 just before 3:30 a.m. at the Jones Creek apartment complex on Lombardy Lane. That’s where they found Esparza, who was later pronounced dead.
Documents obtained by NBC 5 reveal Esparza was sitting inside his car on a video call when a witness heard someone telling him to get out of the car. Police said the witness reported a scuffle, then a gunshot.
Esparza’s sister, Jasmine Hernandez, remembers receiving the call that her brother had been killed.
“The only thing I could think of at the moment was how am I going to tell my mom. I couldn’t believe it at first,” said Hernandez.
Police later identified and captured a suspect, 22-year-old Rocky Mejia Junior. Police said Mejia was seen on surveillance leaving the scene along with Esparza’s white Honda.
“Honestly, I cannot see my life without my brother,” she said. “I’ve been trying to call his phone so many times, yesterday, the day before yesterday, with the hope that he’s going to answer. But obviously he’s never going to call me again.”
A friend, Engracia Salas, told NBC 5 that Esparza had purchased the car about a week before he was shot and killed.
“Over a car? I mean, it’s just not right to take people’s life away just for a simple car,” she said.
Authorities charged Mejia with capital murder. Online records show he’s been arrested multiple times in the last five years across DFW.
