On August 21, 2023, 18-year-old Ross Noel Cruz Jr. was fatally shot in Pleasanton, Texas, around 2 a.m. Officers found Cruz unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds in the 100 block of North Mansfield Street; he was pronounced dead at the scene. About 25 minutes earlier a separate shooting in Jourdanton, roughly 5.6 miles away, killed 23-year-old Jorge Erosa, and investigators determined the two incidents were connected.

Authorities identified 21-year-old Samuel Xavier Ponce as a suspect in both killings. Ponce was arrested during a traffic stop in Pleasanton on August 21; officers found cocaine and a firearm in his vehicle. He was initially charged with drug and weapons offenses and later had two counts of murder added. He is held in the Atascosa County Jail on $2 million bond. The shootings are believed to be drug-related and investigations are ongoing. Cruz, born November 15, 2004, is survived by his mother, siblings and extended family and was laid to rest after services at Hosanna Baptist Church in Poteet, Texas.

If anyone has information about Cruz, the August 21 events, or what led up to that night, please come forward.