EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A 28-year-old El Paso man has been arrested and is facing a murder charge in the shooting death of another man back in 2020 in what appears to be a drug deal gone bad, according to court documents obtained by KTSM.
Darian Malik Hunter, age 28, was arrested in Virginia on April 6 and subsequently transported to El Paso, where he was booked into the El Paso County Detention Center, according to El Paso Police.
Court records show he was booked under $750,000 bond.
Hunter is being charged with murder in the shooting death of Jose Carlos Olivas.
At about 10:45 p.m. on July 30, 2020, El Paso Police officers responded to a shooting at 4308 E. Missouri in Central El Paso.
When officers arrived they found the victim, later identified as Olivas, lying in the street with a gunshot wound to the head, according to court documents. The victim was kept on life support at a local hospital until dying on Feb. 24, 2021.
Detectives obtained surveillance video from the area which showed an man shooting a weapon in the direction of where the victim’s car was parked. The man then crossed the street and continued to fire the gun in the direction of the victim’s vehicle.
At one point in the video, the shooter who was seen in the footage is not firing his weapon but shots could still be heard, meaning there were “multiple shooters,” according to court documents.
The man seen in the surveillance video is then seen entering the passenger side of a vehicle driven by another person and then taking off, according to court documents.
Two anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers implicated Hunter in the crime. Police also did their own independent research that led them to Hunter, according to court documents.
On Sept. 25, 2020, police officers conducted a traffic stop along U.S.-54 of a car being driven by Hunter. The officers smelled marijuana, searched his vehicle and found a 45-caliber Glock handgun in the vehicle, according to court documents.
Spent casings found at the crime scene were those of a 45-caliber handgun, according to court documents.
Hunter was taken to Police Headquarters where he asked to see a lawyer. The suspect did tell police he knew another co-defendant in the incident. This co-defendant was not identified in court documents obtained by KTSM.
Police learned that Hunter left El Paso following his initial interview with police.
Then on Jan. 30 of this year, an unidentified co-defendant came forward to police and provided “detailed facts of the incident that have yet to be made public,” court documents said.
The unnamed co-defendant who came forward said he fears “possible retaliation against him and his family.”
This unnamed co-defendant said he was present during the incident and said he knew a drug deal was going to be made in the victim’s car.
The person provided names of other co-conspirators and told police the drug deal was for a “key (kilogram) of cocaine.”
Investigators did find a white powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine inside the victim’s vehicle.
Once the drug deal was over, the unnamed co-defendant told police that Hunter began firing a handgun out of a car and fired several times in the direction of the victim before fleeing in the car.
“At this time, investigators know there were two shooters and two different calibers that were used to shoot at (Olivas),” court documents said. “Investigators could not determine which projectile caused the (victim’s) death).
