Austin road rage incident leads to deadly shooting; man arrested

AUSTIN, Texas - One person was killed in a deadly shooting along I-35 in downtown Austin.

According to an affidavit, the shooting stemmed from an apparent road rage incident between two cars.

Jacob Gonzalez, 21-year-old, is being charged with first-degree murder.

Background

Timeline:

Austin police responded to an area near Martin Luther King Boulevard and the southbound I-35 service road just after 4 p.m. Saturday.

Jail records show 21-year-old Jacob Gonzalez, Jr. was charged with murder.

An affidavit states Gonzalez told police he shot the victim, identified as Adan Marez, after Marez approached his vehicle at a traffic light.

A witness at the scene told police that they were driving when they cut in front of the car driven by Gonzalez, the affidavit states. The driver told police that Gonzalez passed him and started throwing trash out of his car.

Jacob Gonzalez, 21

Both vehicles were stopped at the red light on the service road at Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard when Marez got out of the passenger side of the vehicle and approached Gonzalez's car, the affidavit states. That's when the driver said he heard a gunshot and Marez grabbed his chest.

Gonzalez told police that he grabbed his gun when Marez approached his vehicle, the affidavit states. He then told police that he thought Marez was "going to swing on" him before he shot him and Marez ran back towards the vehicle he was in before collapsing, the affidavit states.

Police said Gonzalez said the shot was supposed to be a warning shot and he "didn't mean for it to be fatal," the affidavit states.

Gonzalez was being held in the Travis County Correctional Complex.

According to records, Gonzalez has a previous criminal history.

What they're saying:

There were several witnesses to Austin's seventh homicide of 2025.

"We received multiple 911 calls in reference to a person being shot near the intersection of Interstate Highway 35, service road southbound, and Martin Luther King Boulevard," said Detective Leah Ratliff. 

Investigators believe the suspect and victim were involved in a road rage incident before it ended in the death of Adam Marez. 

"We always hate to see things like this from a legal standpoint. This is a really muddy fact pattern," said Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal. 

"It's illegal to use or exhibit a deadly weapon in Texas to place another person in imminent fear," said Rosenthal. "But when you're talking about road rage, you don't know who you're dealing with in traffic."