Affidavit: Texas teen killed parents & siblings because 'they were cannibals'
NASH (CBSNewsTexas.com/AP) — Authorities in east Texas have jailed an 18-year-old man on capital murder charges following the shooting deaths of his parents and siblings Tuesday.
Police in the small town of Nash say officers found Cesar Olalde barricaded inside a home after responding to a report that a man had harmed his family and was threatening to kill himself. They were told that multiple people were dead inside.
Olalde later called police, saying "he had pulled the trigger, and shot his family," according to a probable cause affidavit by Nash Police Officer Craig Buster.
The officers persuaded Olalde to surrender and then found the bodies of his parents, Reuben Olalde and Aida Garcia, older sister Lisbet Olalde and younger brother Oliver Olalde in a bathroom.
"It appeared as if the victims had been shot at various places in the residence and drug to the bathroom," according to the affidavit. "Multiple spent cartridge casings" were found on the floor of the home, and there was "blood spatter on multiple surfaces," it said.
The affidavit said a coworker of Lisbet Olalde had gone to the home because she had failed to arrive at work and, with a family member, forced his way inside where he was confronted by the teen, who pointed a firearm at him.
The coworker told police that Olalde said "he had killed his family because they were cannibals, and they were going to eat him," the affidavit states.
Bowie County court records show Olalde was ordered held on $10 million bond.
As of May 24, there have been at least 25 mass killing incidents in the U.S. so far in 2023, leaving at least 127 people dead, not including perpetrators who died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. That puts the country on a faster pace for mass killing incidents than in any other year since at least 2006, according to the database, which defines a mass killing as an incident in which four or more people are killed, not including the perpetrator, within a 24-hour period.
There have been at least 556 incidents in all since 2006 in the U.S., according to the database, leaving at least 2,892 people dead.
Family mass killings—in which four or more people were killed, not including the perpetrator—have also been an all-too-common tragedy across the country. They've happened nearly every 3 1/2 weeks for the last two decades on average, according to the database.
Anyone with further information on this shooting is asked to contact the Nash Police Department at 903-838-0822.
