Category: Top News Stories

Venezuelan murder suspect found hiding
in a hole after 6+ hour manhunt

K9 officer picks up the scent

After a 6+ hour ordeal, a wanted man considered armed and dangerous was found hiding in a hole in a large field south of Devine. The 25-year old suspect Naudy Hernandez Perez, of Venezuela, was wanted for a Dallas murder, and police believe he was trying to flee the country to Mexico that night when deputies intercepted him on I-35 South this past Thursday night, July 11.
After a massive manhunt he was captured around midnight.
“He had dug a little hole and covered himself up in the tree line,” Sheriff Randy Brown said. “A DPS K9 unit picked up the suspect’s scent and led his handler right to him.”
It all began with a traffic stop as deputies identified the wanted man’s vehicle on I-35 South near MM 119.
Local authorities soon issued a warning notice as the murder suspect fled and went into hiding. Police believed he may have been carrying a 9mm pistol, which was later found inside the vehicle he abandoned.

“My guys were set up on I-35 looking for the vehicle that evening. Around 7 pm, we attempted to stop him, and he fled and jumped out of the vehicle. There was a train on the tracks, and he went either underneath or between the train cars as he fled. So he made it across the thicket of the Black Jacks, and we set up a perimeter,” Sheriff Brown said.
Police, deputies, troopers, border patrol, K9 units, and air support combed the area in the extensive search. BORTAC, a tactical unit of the US Border Patrol, also helped secure the area. The Special Ops group is well-versed in foot chases, and with a murder suspect on the loose in our community, help came from all directions, Sheriff Brown said.
Perez was transported to the Medina County Jail to be charged with the Active Murder Warrant to include new criminal charges. He will be transported back to the county where the Murder charges were filed.
The Medina County Sheriff’s Office would like to give a special thanks to all the agencies involved who assisted with the successful apprehension of this individual: MEDINA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, HONDO POLICE DEPT, TEXAS DPS, FRIO COUNTY, BORDER PATROL, DEVINE POLICE DEPT, SAPD EAGLE.
It is unknown how long the suspect has been in the U.S. and if he was here legally.
“Border Patrol and ICE are looking into that,” Sheriff Brown said.

Hero…

It was a long night for many in the area who locked their doors Thursday night, with helicopters circling overhead and law enforcment combing the area, knowing there was a wanted murder suspect on the loose, believed to be armed and dangerous.
We are all grateful to the many brave men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to capture this dangerous criminal and many others every day.
It’s our pleasure to introduce you to Officer Bona, the K9 that led law enforcement right to the suspect, tracking the suspect for about 2 miles and finding him in about an hour and a half after she deployed! She is a Belgian Malinois from Poland.

By Kayleen Holder
It was inaccurately stated to us that most cities had agreed at least verbally to join the Medina County Regional Water Alliance in previous weeks. We wanted to note that the City of Devine, Lytle, LaCoste, nor Natalia had joined as of last week. Devine and LaCoste was set to discuss it again at their next meeting. Natalia has no plans to join at this time.
City of Devine Administrator David Jordan has attended several meetings so far in order to bring as much information as possible back to council.
“The idea is there’s strength in numbers, but there are still a whole lot of unknowns,” Administrator Jordan said. “We want to get a better understanding of it before making a commitment. We don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We need to know what we are committing to financially as well. We have been told that the City of Devine would be responsible for something like 6.9% of whatever the total cost is, but they haven’t been able to give me a number.”
Scooter Mangold from Yancey Water was set to come to the Devine City Council meeting tonight Tuesday, July 16 (which was press night for us) to answer questions council has.

Other cities are discussing the matter as well.
If you recall, utility companies including East Medina Water, Yancey Water, and Atascosa Rural Water Supply Corp. have joined together forming the Medina County Regional Water Alliance, and hope to join forces with local cities as well.
Medina County is growing by leaps and bounds, and water security is a concern.
In a previous interview, East Medina Special Utility District Superintendent Bruce Alexander who is helping spearhead the Alliance, talked about Medina County’s pressing need for water rights. In fact, local water districts like East Medina have already found themselves needing to acquire more water rights.
“The district leased an additional 300 acre-feet of unrestricted water rights in 2023 to meet system demands. In 2024, we estimate the need to lease up to 600 acre-feet of water rights to meet the increased system demands,” Alexander said in an interview this July.
The Medina County Commissioner’s Court agreed to kick in $92,000 to support the alliance’s initial budget at a meeting July 16.
“Often times the larger utilities have the advantage as smaller systems lack the financial resources to act fast when water rights become available for purchase,” Alexander said.
The projected benefits of the MCRWA will not appear overnight, he adds. Alexander estimates it could take several years to fully fund and construct the infrastructure needed to get the proposed ASR system up and running.
“In hindsight, we probably should have started this years ago,” Alexander said.
He plans to go after state funding available to alliances like the newly created one in Medina County.
Action was taken during the last legislative session to seek voter approval to set aside $1 billion to fund water projects with $250 million, specifically for new water resources like an ASR he explained.
“The current funding opportunity through the Texas Water Development Board combined with our increased growth rates has pushed this issue to the front of the line for East Medina County SUD and Yancey WSC as we work to secure an alternative water source for the current and future residents of Medina County.”
“Each member of the MCRWA would continue to manage the ownership of their individual water rights,” Alexander said. “One vision for the MCRWA is for it to be in a position to gather together any surplus water rights from member systems for storage and future use and to collectively purchase additional water rights that can then be leased to member systems as needed to meet their system demands during critical period reductions of withdrawals from the Edwards Aquifer.
 “Twenty years ago I stressed the need for each water system to own or have direct access to a minimum of 25% more water rights than your anticipated annual demand to be able to meet critical period reductions. Today my recommendation is to have up to 40% more than is needed to ensure that all public water system demands are met during increased critical period reductions based on the level of the aquifer and increasing system demands as a result of development and commercial growth in Medina County,” Alexander adds.
 East Medina has already taken some measures to protect the water supply from the surge of incoming developments.
“The district requires all subdivisions and commercial developments subject to our rules for service to provide transferable Edwards Aquifer unrestricted water rights to the district to meet the demands of the development. Our rules currently require the developer to provide ½ acre feet of water rights for each lot or additional water rights based on their estimated water demands for commercial accounts. In 2023 the district modified this policy to require transferable water rights for any development of four (4) or more lots as a condition of getting water service from the district. Rural water systems are not required to provide service to a development that does not meet the requirements for service as long as the system publishes a notice using specific language and informs developers of the their rules for service,” Alexander said.
Several systems have had this requirement in place for many years.

Medina County has joined the Medina County Water Alliance group and the City of Devine was set to discuss joining at a special meeting on press night. The alliance was started by local leaders at East Medina and Yancey Water in an effort to protect water security in Medina County which is growing by leaps and bounds with incoming subdivisions.
Image couresy of istockphoto.com/copyright ddggg

By Anton Riecher
An appeal to the La Coste City Council to reconsider its recent decision not to participate in an alliance to better manage regional water resources is slated for the council’s July 16 regular session.
Scooter Mangold, general manager of the Yancey Water Supply Corporation, reported on continuing efforts to bring La Coste on board during a July 2 meeting of the entities participating in the Medina County Regional Water Alliance
“As far as sign up I believe everybody is agreed with the exception of La Coste and I think it’s on their agenda for July 16,” Mangold said.

Continue reading “Medina County Water alliance group:”

PRESS RELEASE
HONDO PD–On Saturday, July 6th, 2024 at approximately 1:51 PM, Hondo Police Officers were dispatched to 1301 Ave A Hondo, TX for a possible disturbance with a weapon.
Hondo Officers arrived on scene and observed a male and female laying on the ground in front of the drive way, with apparent gunshot wounds.
Officers secured the scene and attempted life saving measures on both the male and female. The female was identified as Dolores Rivera, age 53, of Hondo.

Continue reading “Two found deceased in Hondo Tragedy”

Four local road projects listed on TxDot’s
10 year plan

In this week’s edition, Gary Borders reports on State Capital Highlights which includes a short article on the comment period for TxDOT’s 10-year plan, which is currently underway, ending on August 5.
Upon further research, it was noted that there are four projects totaling over $475 million dollars in our area coming from SA to northeast Medina County which made the 10-year plan.
These projects on the Southwest side of San Antonio going into the Castroville area include:

Continue reading “$475 Million estimated cost…”

The board of volunteers who oversee the local ambulance service in Devine and Natalia discusses buying two gently used EMS units as they prepare to take over operations locally. EMS service has been provided by a large private company for years (Allegiance EMS). Pictured are board members George Morales, Tony Martin, Viola Potter, Shelley Watson, and Juan Zamora. Coordinator of the ESD4 Christy Merendon and newly hired ESD4 Director Jason Miller is also pictured as well as Pat Bourcier, District Chief for Allegiance which currently serves the area.

By Anton Riecher
A letter of intent giving Medina County Emergency Services District No. 4 right of first refusal on two used ambulances due to be retired by a suburb community near Dallas was approved by the ESD4 board of commissioners at their July 2 regular session.
EMS Director Jason Miller said the opportunity comes at a time when finances for the district are extremely tight. The district recently approved the purchase of two new ambulances in preparation for taking over operations this fall currently provided by Allegiance Mobile Health.
However, the two “gently used” 2016 ambulances belonging to the city of Coppell are available at a “very reasonable” price, he said.
“I’d be very surprised if you found another truck at that price or less,” Miller said.

Continue reading “ESD4 investigates purchase of additional ambulances for operations revamp”