Woman’s cellphone video shows friend accidentally shoot her in the head, TX cops say
_fitted%20(1).png "A woman in El Paso, Texas, was recording on her cellphone the moment she was fatally shot.")
A 24-year-old man thought the gun in his hand was unloaded, but a Texas woman’s point-blank cellphone video captured the consequences of his mistake, deputies told news outlets.
Karina Isabel Tobias, 21, went out into the desert surrounding El Paso on April 10, along with some friends and their guns, for a day of target shooting, outlets reported.
Later that day, Tobias showed up in the hospital with a gunshot wound, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said.
She died two days later, on April 12, according to her family.
“Karina had an accident,” her family wrote on a GoFundMe page, raising money for medical bills and funeral expenses. “Karina was a young (soul) full of life, full of dreams, and more than anything full of love to give.”
The answers to what happened were in the desert on a cellphone, dropped in the sand and left behind in a hurry, KFOX reported.
But investigators found it, and over a week after Tobias was shot, on April 18, deputies arrested 24-year-old Efrain Orozco and charged him with murder, EPCSO said.
Orozco and Tobias dated, friends told investigators, KFOX reported.
He dropped her off at the hospital after she was shot in the head, according to the station. He also made a call to 911, saying Tobias had shot herself. But witnesses and Tobias’ video told a different story, KFOX reported.
On April 18, with assistance from Homeland Security, investigators were able to access Tobias’ phone and view its final recording, according to KTSM.
At some point in the afternoon of April 10, Tobias sat on the tailgate of Orozco’s pickup truck, recording him with her cellphone, friends told investigators, KTSM reported. He aimed a .45-caliber pistol at the phone, pulled the trigger, and it went off.
Tobias’ phone drops to the ground, and the video ends.
Panicked, Orozco told investigators he drove to the nearest hospital, KTSM reported. El Paso police detained him in the emergency room and handed him over to El Paso sheriff’s deputies.
He told deputies it was an accident, according to the TV station, that he had taken the magazine out of the gun and was sure it was empty.
Orozco was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility, the sheriff’s office said. His bond is set at $500,000.
This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Woman’s cellphone video shows friend accidentally shoot her in the head, TX cops say."