Because apparently, we can’t even buy a bag of Takis and a fountain soda in this town without it turning into a scene from a low-budget Western, 41-year-old Tommy Rios is currently enjoying the hospitality of the Lubbock County Detention Center. Our latest installment of “Central Lubbock Charm” went down Friday night near 59th and Avenue P, where a “verbal altercation” ended exactly how things usually do when people have more ammunition than impulse control.
According to the folks in blue, Rios and 37-year-old Jonathan Trevino were both inside a convenience store—the natural habitat for Lubbock’s most enlightened debates. Rios stepped out first, waited for Trevino to emerge, and then decided that words were just too much work. He allegedly produced a firearm, shot Trevino, and fled the scene, leaving the victim to be rushed to UMC where he was later pronounced dead.
By Saturday afternoon, the Lubbock Texas Anti-Gang Center and SWAT decided to join the party. They spent hours conducting “surveillance” on 59th Street—which is police-speak for waiting for the guy to realize he wasn’t actually a getaway driver in a heist movie. Rios was eventually taken into custody without incident, likely because it’s a lot harder to act tough when a SWAT team is standing in your driveway at 2:00 p.m.
Now, Rios is sitting on a $300,000 bond for a first-degree murder charge. It’s a steep price to pay for whatever “verbal altercation” started near the beef jerky aisle, but hey, that’s just life in the 806.
Does anyone else remember when people used to just flip each other off and go home, or did the dust storms finally blow away everyone’s sense of perspective?
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