Harold Lavance Thompson (Dallas County Jail) and Gabriella Gonzalez (NBC News screenshot)
A 22-year-old man in Texas was arrested last week for allegedly shooting and killing his 26-year-old girlfriend in front of multiple witnesses after he learned that she had traveled to a different state to get an abortion.
Harold Lavance Thompson was taken into custody on Friday and charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of assault on a family or household member by impeding breathing in the death of Gabriella Gonzalez, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Officers with the Dallas Police Department on the evening of May 10 responded to a reported shooting at an address located in the 800 block of Walton Walker Boulevard, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by Law&Crime. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders say they found an adult female — later identified as Gonzalez — who appeared to have been shot multiple times. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Gonzalez’s sister, identified in court documents as Melanie Rubio, told police that she saw her sister and Thompson walking together shortly before the shooting. She said that she found it “odd” that her sister was walking because Gonzalez was driving a rental car at the time. Rubio said that after she passed by her sister and Thompson she heard the sound of gunfire and when she turned around to look back she saw her sister on the ground.
A second witness to the alleged shooting — whose name was not disclosed in court documents — told police that they saw Thompson put Gonzalez in a “choke hold” just before he fatally shot her. The witness “attempted to give help” to the victim but was unsuccessful, police wrote. The witness was also unable to call for assistance because she did not have her cellphone on her at the time of the shooting.
Investigators then obtained surveillance footage from nearby buildings which they say showed Thompson and Gonzalez walking together.
“The suspect then attempts to put [Gonzalez] in a choke hold but [she] shrugs him off,” police wrote in the affidavit. “[Gonzalez] and the suspect continue to walk through the parking lot. Suspect Thompson then pulls out a firearm and shoots [Gonzalez] one time in the head. [Gonzalez] falls to the ground and the suspect then fired multiple more shots into the complainant.”
After allegedly shooting Gonzalez several times, police say that Thompson fled the scene on foot.
As the investigation into the shooting continued, police say they learned that Gonzalez had recently traveled to Colorado to get an abortion, which investigators say was likely the motive for the shooting. She returned from Colorado on the night before she was killed.
“It is believed that the suspect was the father of the child,” police wrote in the affidavit. “The suspect did not want [Gonzalez] to get an abortion.”
At the time of the shooting, Thompson also had an active arrest warrant issued in March which states that he allegedly physically assaulted a pregnant Gonzalez multiple times by strangling and punching her.
“She is scared of the suspect because he had made threats to harm her family and her children,” police wrote of Gonzalez. “She has kids from a different relationship, and suspect is very jealous of the complainant’s ex-boyfriend.”
Thompson is currently being held in the Dallas County Jail without bond.
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