DALLAS – Police arrested a 19-year-old woman for the murder of a man at a Facebook Marketplace encounter.
It occurred last week, just feet away from an elementary school and a busy Dallas interstate, with numerous witnesses present.
Police said Ahmad Alkhalaf, a 66-year-old husband and father from Sasche, was slain in the middle of the afternoon at an Oak Cliff gas station at I-35 and South Marsalis Avenue.
Shots rang out last Friday at about 3 p.m., just as the adjoining Felix G. Botello Elementary School was closing.
According to court documents, two Dallas ISD police officers responded to the Valero and discovered Alkhalaf shot next to his pickup truck. He later died in the hospital.
Dallas police discovered Alkhalaf went there to sell a black iPhone 15 to someone he had been chatting with on Facebook Marketplace.
Police discovered several CCTV tapes from adjacent businesses. They say the video shows 19-year-old Amaya Medrano and Alkhalaf having a brief talk before Medrano flees.
As Alkhalaf pursued her, cameras caught Medrano turning around and shooting Alkhalaf, authorities claimed.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit acquired by FOX 4 on Thursday, authorities linked Medrano’s distinctive tattoos on her face and neck to her social media accounts.
Just three days after the fatal shooting, investigators discovered that the same Facebook account used to communicate with Alkhalaf was selling a black iPhone 15 on Marketplace.
Dallas police said Wednesday that Medrano had been apprehended by U.S. Marshals and had been placed into the Dallas County jail.
Alkhalaf’s family describes him as a devoted spouse, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend. They went on to explain that he was a humble man who worked hard to support his family both domestically and internationally.
The family is dumbfounded and horrified by this senseless act of murder, claiming Alkhalaf’s life was snatched over a smartphone.
According to court records, Medrano is serving a five-year probation sentence for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after pleading guilty to stabbing someone last year.
Medrano has now been charged with capital murder. Her bond was set at $1 million.
