Bounty hunters scuffle with fugitive as fatal shots ring out at Greenville car dealership

Two bounty hunters and the fugitive they were looking for died in a shootout Tuesday evening at a Greenville auto dealership, officials say.

Officials identified the bounty hunters as Fidel Garcia Jr., 54, and Gabriel Bernal, 33. Minnesota fugitive Ramon Michael Hutchinson, 49, was also killed.

The shootings occurred about 7:15 p.m. at Nissan of Greenville along Interstate 30 near Joe Ramsey Boulevard.

Greenville is about 50 miles northeast of Dallas in Hunt County.
Officers responding to calls about gunshots found the three men dead, city officials said in a written statement.

The city of Greenville released video of the shooting to reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
The video shows two armed men cornering a third man in a glass office at the dealership. As the men scuffle, gunshots ring out in quick succession.
"Get down!" says a man as a woman shrieks in the background.

Greenville officials said Garcia, owner of F.N.G. Security and Investigations of Corpus Christi, and Bernal, one of his employees, went to the dealership to capture Hutchinson. The Minnesota man had an outstanding warrant in that state for failure to appear in court for a drug charge.

The dealership's owner, Rick Ford, told KDFW-TV (Channel 4) that the bounty hunters had waited several hours for the third man to arrive and had initially presented themselves as federal agents.

Hutchinson was in an office with another person when Bernal and Garcia approached and began giving him commands, according to Greenville officials. Hutchinson tried to pull a pistol from his waistband but dropped it on a desk.

Officials said the men scuffled as Hutchinson tried to pick up his gun. Hutchinson was able to retrieve his gun and began firing, and the bounty hunters fired back, according to police.
About 20 shots were fired in the span of six seconds, officials said. The three men had multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.

"We express appreciation and send prayers to our customers, employees and the City of Greenville for the unfortunate situation that occurred at Nissan of Greenville," Ford said in a prepared statement.

Link to original article, and video

Several lessons to be learned here and quite possibly a Darwin nomination or two. Fortunately no innocent bystanders were hurt or killed.

IDed themselves as Feds?
Nice trick. Minor problem: kinda illegal.

Secure suspect and his weapon. Otherwise bad things happen. A cluster with horrible consequences.

Didn't look from the cellphone vid that they ever took a command posture.
Seemed they expected compliance when they got a Hell No.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

Urp.

Mebbe you need a Doc?

"FNG Security and Investigation"? They shoulda used somebody experienced.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
"FNG Security and Investigation"? They shoulda used somebody experienced.

I see what you did there!

What a disaster.

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Why were they pointing pistols at this guy if they weren't prepared to use them? He attempted to draw his pistol and dropped it. As soon as he put his hand on that pistol - BangBangBang, repeat as needed.

Think about it- not one but two men had pistols pointed at this guy, and the guy managed to shoot the "bounty hunters" first even after he had dropped his pistol while drawing it! Think about that. The fugitive didn't kill these "bounty hunters". They killed themselves. That's what it comes down to.

I'm a bounty hunter if I say I'm a bounty hunter, no training required, and this is the result.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Why were they pointing pistols at this guy if they weren't prepared to use them? He attempted to draw his pistol and dropped it. As soon as he put his hand on that pistol - BangBangBang, repeat as needed..

Per the local news there were 20 shots in 6 seconds. I'm guessing someone timed and counted from the stupid cellphone video. So there were lots of BangBangBang. Must have been pretty impressive with all that glass to rebound the sound off of.

Yes, but the fugitive shot first. After having dropped his pistol while attempting to draw it, these jamokes let the fugitive pick it up and start shooting. Forgive me, but Goddamn, that's just plain stupid. They're struggling with the guy when he's attempting to pick up his pistol? Freaking SHOOT HIM!!

It's apparent that these "bounty hunters" felt that their supposed authority was all that was needed to subdue this guy, and it is apparent that neither of them were mentally prepared to shoot this guy.

That's one way to get out of the wrong line of work.

Exactly.

This is a good learning tool that reinforces there are serious criminals out there who are not scared in the slightest at someone - even two people - pointing guns at him.

Watch the video at one-quarter speed. Amazing the 'perp' apparently gets the first shots off even after dropping his gun...

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quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Forgive me, but Goddamn, that's just plain stupid. They're struggling with the guy when he's attempting to pick up his pistol?

Yep, they seemed intent on trying to simply manhandle him away from the gun.

Partly (mostly?) lack of training. Combined with some tunnel vision/vaporlock, making them unable to react to the changing situation. Combined with some complacency, if they're so used to every one of their prior fugitives simply respecting their authoritay and going meekly.

But I can't help but wonder whether another factor that made them so intent on wrestling him down and taking him into custody alive was because that's the only way they would get paid... No such thing as Wild West-style "Wanted: Dead or Alive" bounties these days.

My advice to all gun owners is that if you are not prepared to shoot someone, then, by God do not point your pistol at anyone.

Do people/business owners have the right to not agree to let bounty hunters try to apprehend fugitives on their property?

No way I'd want that kind of activity taking place inside my business, much less from self-appointed-LEO types, unless there was an immediate threat.

Bounty hunters or, more properly, “fugitive recovery agents” have a lot of power under statutes that were passed long ago. I have never researched all the specifics, but they aren’t subject to all the constraints that LEOs are, and that leads many of them to push things pretty far. I don’t believe they’re allowed to (legally) represent themselves as Federal or local police, but if they get away with it ….

Real police usually have a lot of disdain for the ones who push things and in our area a couple got themselves in deep trouble some years ago.

The only thing worse than their tactics and skill, was their judgement.