SAN ANTONIO – The arrest of an 18-year-old man has brought relief to the mother of the teen the suspect is accused of shooting and killing on the city's West Side earlier this month.
Members of a U.S. Marshal's Office special task force caught Eric Cavazos by surprise Thursday afternoon on a bus in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Christopher Bozeman, a U.S. deputy marshal based in San Antonio and a member of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, said the task force was assisting San Antonio police with the investigation, when members received information that Cavazos was on the bus. Bozeman said it appeared that Cavazos had boarded the bus in St. Louis and was headed to Los Angeles.
Task force members said they had to use a Taser on Cavazos to take him into custody.
Police believe the suspect shot and killed Joseph Macias, 18, and wounded two other teens on Aug. 7. The victims were found inside a car on Tahoka Road.
At the time of the shootings, police said the teens had gone to the location to meet with someone after arranging a drug deal through social media.
"For any reason, you know, I don't believe that anyone should get killed," said Macias' mother, who asked not to be identified by name. "It was horrible, just thinking how he can go out and hurt someone else."
She said she found out about the arrest on a television news report and from a phone call from one of the detectives involved in the murder case. While Cavazos' arrest spells relief, she said it can't fully erase the hurt she feels.
"If a mother hasn't gone through this, they can't even imagine the pain," she said.
She said her son, a recent high school graduate, had plans to join the U.S. Army. However, she said he had told her that he first wanted to spend the summer enjoying himself.
The victim's mother said she's struggling just to move on with her life.
Cavazos will be extradited to San Antonio to face criminal charges, including first-degree murder. For the immediate future, he is being held in a Tulsa jail.