North Texas Muslims upset over release of murder suspect
PLEASANT GROVE, TX - 2/17 5 PM update: US Marshals re-arrested Anthony Torres on Wednesday morning.
The North Texas Muslim community is raising questions after a murder suspect being investigated for a hate crime was released from jail twice.
Dallas police said on Christmas Eve, Anthony Torres opened fire at Omar's Wheels and Tires on South Buckner Boulevard in Pleasant Grove. A non-Muslim man sitting in his car was killed, a Middle Eastern shop employee was shot and others were grazed by bullets.
Torres had been to the shop before, saying Muslims were "making problems" and he was going to come back and kill them, police said.
Local Muslim leaders point out that the man who died in the shooting spree was not Muslim, but an Hispanic tattoo artist who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Quite frankly this endangers anyone that could possibly be mistaken for Middle Eastern," said Omar Suleiman.
Torres was charged with a hate crime, one count of murder and two counts of aggravated assault. But he was released from jail last month after posting the $150,000 bond.
Torres was arrested again this past Thursday in Rockwall for knocking over vases at an office building and telling police "he was tired of the rich oppressing the poor."
Police said he lied about his name and ended up with being charged with just criminal mischief and fail to identify. Rockwall police requested a high bond, but said a jailer missed the request and Torres was allowed to bond out.
The Council on American Islamic Relations renewed its call for federal agents to investigate the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism after learning that Torres had not only been released from Dallas County, but arrested and released again.
"We are horrified that such a dangerous criminal had bail set to begin with but the fact that it was set so low is absolutely inexcusable," Alia Salem said.
U.S. Marshals took Torres into custody again Wednesday morning for outstanding bond forfeiture warrants.