Man arrested in South Austin deadly shooting connected to other crimes
Murder suspect connected to other crimes in Austin
Austin police have caught a man they say is connected to several shootings, including a murder that happened more than a week ago.
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin police have caught a man they say is connected to several shootings, including a murder that happened more than a week ago.
APD says this isn’t the suspect’s only run-in with the law, and he’s believed to have gang affiliations.
Santana Gonzales, 21
Deadly shooting in South Austin
The backstory:
Last month, Austin police responded to a reported shooting in the Woodland Avenue area.
"There were several, multiple people heard gunshots. And multiple people kind of saw bits and pieces of what happened," said Aaron Townsend with the Austin Police Department.
When officers arrived, a man was found in a car that crashed into a fence. He had gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police say the suspect fled before officers arrived. They later released photos to the public.
"Witnesses had described a Hispanic male, young, maybe late teens, early 20s. Slender build in the area and it just left the area before officers arrived," said Townsend.
Man found dead after vehicle crashes into fence in Austin, police seek suspect
Austin police are investigating the city's 39th homicide of 2026 after a man suffering from fatal trauma was found dead inside a crashed vehicle on Sunday afternoon, with officers now searching for a young suspect seen fleeing the scene.
Police identified the victim as Edwin Pulgar.
APD says Pulgar was driving his car when he encountered 21-year-old Santana Gonzales walking then Gonzales shot Pulgar.
"At this time there's no information that's been put out as far as what relationship there may or may not have been," said Townsend.
An arrest warrant was issued for Gonzales for first-degree murder.
Gonzales is in the Travis County Jail facing charges of murder and deadly conduct.
Dig deeper:
On Wednesday, he was arrested by the US Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force and the APD SWAT team in Austin.
Police say Gonzales also has gang affiliations.
"With his prior gang affiliation. I'm sure law enforcement is going to be studying that very, very carefully, developing additional information that would serve the prosecution in this case. And certainly, those would be aggravating factors for his character in the event he were to have a trial," said criminal defense attorney, Alan Bennett.
Gonzales' previous run-ins with the law
What they're saying:
Meanwhile, APD says Gonzales is currently a suspect in other shootings within the past month.
According to the department, he was involved in a deadly conduct incident in July and two aggravated assault incidents within weeks of each other in August.
Defense attorney, Alan Bennett, says that pattern of recent violence could play into how the district attorney's office will approach the case.
"Sounds like there are some other very, very serious offenses that are floating around out there that he has not yet been charged with, but that APD knows about. This is the kind of case, this is the kind of fellow who the district attorney's office would zoom in on," said Bennett.
Court records also reveal multiple cases against Gonzales were eventually dismissed.
"On paper, that doesn't look good for the state. On paper, it doesn't good. That the prosecutors are dismissing a number of cases. In reality, the state really does have limited resources. They do allocate those resources very carefully," said Bennett.
The Source: Information from the Austin Police Department, from an interview with Defense attorney Alan Bennett and previous FOX 7 Austin coverage