North Texas man charged with murder after random fatal stabbing at Garland grocery store

Garland man charged with murder at local grocery store

A North Texas man was arrested and charged with murder this weekend after a seemingly random stabbing at a Garland grocery store. FOX 4's Alex Boyer has more.

GARLAND, Texas - A North Texas man is charged with murder after police say he stabbed a man to death at a Garland grocery store on Friday night.

Police say the suspect surrendered after detectives released surveillance looking for information and witnesses in the case.

Random Garland grocery store stabbing

What we know:

Garland Police detectives say this was a random attack and the suspect, 32-year-old Juan Pedro Reyes, reportedly came up with the idea while hanging out at an area skate park.

Reyes then drove to the grocery store, and fatally stabbed the victim in the neck.

The fatal encounter happened around 8 p.m. on Friday night.

According to police, Reyes drove to this Fiesta Grocery Store, located off South First Street. This is a surveillance image of Reyes that was released by police.

Police detail unprovoked attack

Investigators say Reyes was inside the store for several minutes before he simply walked up to the victim, now identified as 39-year-old Franky  Arredondo Barrios, and stabbed him in the neck.

Reyes left the store, went home, and reportedly confessed to his parents, who brought him to the Garland Police Department to turn himself in on Saturday.

What they're saying:

"Based on what we gathered from his statements to us, that evening he decided he was going to hurt somebody. And so, he chose that grocery store to go to, and when he went there, he targeted the victim, and he stabbed him," said Lt. Pedeo Barineau of Garland police.

"These random acts are unique. We don’t have a lot of violent attacks against people who are unknown. These are random to an extent. It’s a tragedy, is what it is. It’s very sad for so many different reasons. The victims lost their lives. He has loved ones affected by this tragedy."

Community remembers victim

Dig deeper:

Janet Marquez works at the Latina Market, located in the same shopping plaza. Marquez said the victim was a regular customer. 

That fateful night he stopped by to order some food. She told him it would take about 20 minutes, so he walked over to Fiesta to buy some groceries. 

"He came to buy food. I’m sure he thought he was going to go home and enjoy it in his home in peace, and the fact that this has happened to him tells you anybody can lose their life at any time, so the most important thing is to spend time with family, because you never know when your last moment on this earth," said Marquez.

Sadly, Barrios never returned to pick up his order.