Austin deadly shooting: 2 men arrested in connection with mechanic's death
Two arrested in connection with mechanic's murder
Two men were arrested in connection with a mechanic's death on E. Riverside Drive last week.
AUSTIN, Texas - Two men were arrested in connection with a mechanic's death on E. Riverside Drive last week.
Timeline:
On June 19, the APD homicide unit issued an arrest warrant for Israel Medina, 19, for capital murder. He had been out on bond for stealing a car.
The same day, multiple arrest warrants were issued for Medina and David Perez Jr., 26, for first-degree aggravated robbery for a different incident.
Perez was also charged with first-degree aggravated robbery for his role in the murder.
Both Medina and Perez were arrested on June 19.
According to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Medina is currently being held on a $400,000 bond for his capital murder charge.
What they're saying:
Medina was out on bond for the theft of a car in 2025, and was enrolled in a pre-trial diversion program, which allows an offender the opportunity to have their case dismissed if they are able to meet requirements set by prosecutors and the defense.
"That would be community service, cognitive education programming, theft classes, things like that just to kind of make an impact. I guess with Mr. Medina's case, it didn't do very well though," says Gene Anthes, a criminal law attorney. "Pretrial diversion is usually reserved for first-time offenders or small kinds of offenses, drug offenses, people who've made mistakes."
But what came as a surprise to Anthes was that Medina was given the opportunity to be part of a diversion program to begin with. Court records show he had previous misdemeanors for car burglary, while his property theft charge is classified as a third-degree felony, something Anthes says he doesn’t usually see qualify for the diversion program.
"When I saw that he was on pre-trial diversion for a third-degree felony theft, meaning he stole more than $30,000, that made me raise some eyebrows. But what you and I aren’t privy to is what's going on in the background. There may be some problems with the state's case in that theft case."
What happened?
The backstory:
The Austin Police Department says a man was shot by a suspect who tried to rob him while he was working late.
On June 15, around 10:47 p.m., police responded to a call about a shooting in the AutoZone parking lot at 2237 E Riverside Drive.
Officers arrived at around 11 p.m. and found 28-year-old Jose Salgado-Amador with gunshot wounds in the parking lot.
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Despite life-saving measures and ATCEMS taking him to a local hospital, Salgado-Amador died from his injuries at 11:56 p.m.
Police said Salgado-Amador was working as a mechanic in a parking lot off East Riverside Drive when police said the suspect demanded something from him, then shot him, ran, and drove away.
Dig deeper:
A witness reported that they were in the parking lot with Salgado when they were approached by the suspect. The suspect supposedly said "mechanico," and then produced a black semi-automatic handgun before demanding property from both Salgado and the witness.
The affidavit states that Salgado complied, but when the suspect turned his attention towards the witness, Salgado attempted to wrestle the gun away.
Salgado would be shot during the interaction, with four fired cartridge cases discovered at the scene. The witness observed the suspect flee on foot toward a light-colored four-door sedan.
That claim was backed up by surveillance video along E. Riverside Drive, which captures the vehicle entering the parking lot around 10:33 p.m. At around 10:45 p.m, that same vehicle was seen traveling back through the parking lot, followed by a subject running on foot.
Detectives also obtained additional surveillance stills from the H-E-B at 2508 East Riverside Drive on June 15. They observed the suspect's car parked, and two subjects entered the store, confirming one of them to be David Perez Jr.
The other suspect appeared to be a smaller, Hispanic male wearing blue and white shoes, a red short-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and a large diamond chain with a pendant. This clothing description matched the report given by the witness who saw the struggle happen between Salgado and the suspect.
Footage from a Wells Fargo ATM also captured a suspect fleeing the scene, wearing that description of clothing. Detectives would eventually identify this suspect as Israel Medina.
On June 19, the suspect’s car would eventually be in East Austin, where officers began surveillance and observed Medina and Perez enter the car and exit an apartment complex together.
The Source: Information from the Austin Police Department and previous FOX 7 Austin coverage