High-risk shooting suspect captured in Premont after 48-hour manhunt

Premont’s lockdown ended Friday, Jan. 2, when officers and federal agents arrested 22-year-old Damian Rodriguez at about 11:40 a.m. at a home on the 200 block of NE 5th Street, just blocks from the Premont Police Station. The arrest closed out a 48-hour manhunt that began on New Year’s Eve, after police said Rodriguez posted social media threats toward a local officer and then fired at Premont officers who went to question him.

State troopers later came under fire as the search widened, but no officers or troopers were injured. Authorities said intelligence and surveillance pointed them to the residence where Rodriguez was found, and the operation ended with his arrest and the recovery of a loaded AR-15 rifle. He was taken to the Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Office jail.

Premont Police Chief Ricardo Garcia said nearly 100 officers and agents were involved in the coordinated response. The task force included Texas Department of Public Safety special operations units, negotiators, troopers, aircraft and K-9 teams, the Texas Rangers, the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offender Fugitive Task Force, ATF, Border Patrol, the Jim Wells County Sheriff’s Office, the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office and the Falfurrias Police Department.

Garcia said Rodriguez faced multiple warrants and charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault on a peace officer or public servant, terroristic threat, deadly conduct, marijuana possession and a probation violation. He said more charges could follow.

The case rattled Premont, a city of about 3,135 people in Jim Wells County along U.S. Highway 281 and I-69C. In a county of 38,804 residents, the response showed how quickly a small South Texas community can become the focus of a regional law-enforcement deployment when an armed suspect is believed to be inside city limits.

Rodriguez’s grandmother said he struggled with mental health issues and urged him to turn himself in peacefully. The homeowner where Rodriguez was found said he did not know Rodriguez was there and said the suspect had told the children in the home he intended to surrender. The arrest, carried out without injury, brought a tense search to a close and underscored the kind of multi-agency coordination that small border-region towns increasingly rely on when danger breaks into a neighborhood.