HOUSTON (AP) – A gunman who killed one person and wounded several others during a weekend attack that began at a Houston auto detail shop was an Army veteran from California who was haunted by his deployment in Afghanistan, his relatives said.
Family members identified Dionisio Garza III, 25, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, as the man who opened fire Sunday morning, killing 56-year-old Eugene Linscomb, a customer who had arrived moments earlier at the shop.
Garza, who was on foot, proceeded to spray the west Houston neighborhood with dozens of shots from what police said was an AR-15 style military rifle. A police SWAT officer killed Garza about an hour after the shooting began.
Garza spent four years in the Army, receiving his discharge in 2014, according to Pentagon records released Tuesday. During that time, he served two tours in Afghanistan, the first from December 2009 to November 2010 and the second from December 2012 to August 2013. Assigned to infantry, he reached the rank of sergeant in December 2011.
“I think he was haunted by everything that he saw there and he experienced there,” his stepmother, Cathy Garza, told ABC News. “I think it changes you. I don’t know how you can go through what he went through and see what he saw and not have it change you or have it affect you.”