3 Laredo officers wounded in convenience store shootout being treated in SA

Officers' recovery looks promising

SAN ANTONIO

Three officers wounded in a shootout in Laredo that left a murder suspect dead are now recovering in San Antonio.

Two of the officers were taken to University Hospital and underwent surgery Saturday morning.

The Laredo police chief stopped by the hospital to visit the officers.

"I’m grateful of the reports from the doctors in my visit with them. Everything is very optimistic. We’re hoping to have our officers back home pretty soon,” Laredo Police Chief Claudio Trevino Jr. said.

Authorities said the officers are not out of the woods yet, but their outlook and recovery looks promising.

The third officer is recovering at the San Antonio Military Medical Center and is reportedly doing well.

The three officers were wounded Friday afternoon in a deadly shootout at a Laredo convenience store as they tried to arrest 55-year-old murder suspect Antonio Gerardo Rodriguez.

"(It was) horrifying to get to the scene and witness one of our officers ... in the parking lot of a local business being attended by firefighters and later transported to the hospital,” Trevino said.

Investigators believe Rodriguez is responsible for killing his girlfriend, 50-year-old Reyna Gonzalez Zamora. Zamora's body was found at an apartment early Friday morning. That's when police sent out a public lookout notice for the suspect who was considered “armed and dangerous.”

Rodriguez did not go quietly. He exchanged gunfire with officers, hitting three of them. A fourth officer was injured due to glass shrapnel. 

Rodriguez was also shot. He died on the way to the hospital.

Laredo police will be releasing more information about the incident soon.

The names of the officers were released Saturday. They're identified as 49-year-old Mario Casares Jr., 52-year-old Roberto Cortinas, 33-year-old Agapito Perez and 50-year-old Arturo Vela. Each officer had between 9 and 26 years of experience. 

Perez and Vela were both at University Hospital on Saturday, while Casares was at SAMMC, Cortinas was released from the hospital on Friday.

"The support we've been receiving here is tremendous from the community, from all the agencies — state, local, federal. It’s been tremendous. We’re thankful for that and we appreciate it. We just ask for the continued prayers for the families and the officers to recover,” Trevino said.

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