A 31-year-old Mission man accused of shooting and killing a man at a Palmview H-E-B in 2016 is scheduled for a jury trial Monday morning.
Raul Lopez is charged with murder, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a count of attempted capital murder of multiple persons related to the Nov. 28, 2016 shooting at the grocery store located at Goodwin Road and U.S. Expressway 83.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty and his attorney, O. Rene Flores, is pursuing an insanity defense.
The man had worked at the H-E-B for a few years and is accused of walking up to four square, dark-tinted windows and firing 15 shots from a 9mm handgun, killing 48-year-old Mario Pulido and injuring Rafael Ramirez-Martinez, then 37, Frailan Garza, then 51, and Billy Joe Martinez, who was 33 at the time, according to police.
Police say Lopez was working the night of the shooting and called 9-1-1 on himself, telling dispatch that “everyone was out to get him,” former Palmview Police Chief Christopher Cabrera said at the time.
Investigators said Lopez told them he believed the window was bulletproof and that no one was hurt, the former chief said, describing Lopez as “paranoid.”
At his arraignment, Lopez told former state District Judge Rudy Delgado, who is serving time in federal prison over a bribery conviction, that he had previously been declared incompetent.
Lopez has remained in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center since his arrest on a total of $1.9 million in bonds.
