Adrian Murillo Curiel was 16 and a junior at Cedar Park High School when he was shot and killed on June 12, 2022, in Austin, Texas. He was found in the driver’s seat of a Dodge Charger that had crashed through a fence and come to rest near a house on the 1200 block of Oro Valley Trail in North Austin. Adrian had been shot in the chest and did not survive; two other passengers in the car sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.

Investigators say the shooting occurred during a drug transaction after Adrian agreed to meet three men who wanted to buy marijuana. One of the men reportedly fired multiple shots through the car window, prompting Adrian to speed away before the crash. Arrests were made: 21-year-old Stephen Sanchez Jr. was charged with Adrian’s murder, and two others—17-year-old Devin Vasquez-Pachecho and 20-year-old Xelso Mora-Vazquez—were also arrested and charged with murder. All three suspects were being held at the Williamson County Jail while the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division continued its inquiry.

Adrian’s family and community remember him as charismatic, clever, and a positive role model who loved movies and real estate investing. Did anyone in the Austin or Cedar Park area see Adrian or that Dodge Charger in the hours before the shooting?