The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating how the Methodist hospital shooting suspect acquired a handgun as both a felon and parolee, officials confirmed to The Dallas Morning News Thursday.
Sara Abel, an ATF spokesperson for the Dallas division, said the agency is tracing the firearm police said 30-year-old Nestor Oswaldo Hernandez used Saturday, when Jacqueline Ama Pokuaa, a caseworker, and Katie Annette Flowers, a nurse, were fatally shot inside Methodist Dallas Medical Center in north Oak Cliff.
Hernandez was booked into the Dallas County jail Wednesday, where he faces a charge of capital murder and aggravated assault of a public servant. His bail was set at $3 million, and it was unclear whether he had an attorney.
According to an arrest-warrant affidavit, Hernandez was at the hospital Saturday for the birth of his child when he began acting strangely, accusing his girlfriend of cheating on him. Hernandez then struck his girlfriend with a handgun and vowed to shoot the first person who walked into the room, the affidavit says.
Pokuaa was shot as she entered to provide routine patient services, according to Dallas police Chief Eddie García, and Flowers was struck moments later when she looked inside the room.
The affidavit said Hernandez then fired at a Methodist police sergeant who shot Hernandez in the leg, causing him to surrender after a brief standoff.
Gunman on parole
Hernandez was on parole and had an active ankle monitor when he went to the hospital’s labor and delivery wing Saturday, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, but had permission to be there because his girlfriend gave birth to their child.
Hernandez was previously sentenced to eight years in prison in 2015 for an aggravated robbery conviction, but was released on parole in 2021 after he served 80% of his sentence, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles said.
He violated parole twice this year, once in March for violating curfew and again in June when he cut off his ankle monitor, according to Dallas police.
On June 28, a parole panel re-incarcerated him after he cut his ankle monitor off and served 100 days in custody, the state board said. Those parole terms have been heavily criticized by officials, including Dallas police Chief Eddie García, who said at a news conference Monday ankle monitors aren’t a form of accountability and the criminal justice system failed.
“A violent individual such as this should not have been on ankle monitor and should have remained in custody,” García said. “... It’s frustrating. It is almost like we’re swimming upstream.”
Firearm possession in Texas for convicted felons
In Texas, convicted felons are not entirely banned from owning firearms. A resident can own a gun with a felony on their record if their sentence ended at least five years ago, but only in their home or on their land for protection or hunting, according to Rodriguez & Gimbert, a law firm based in Bryan.
But while the law prevents convicted felons from purchasing guns legally through a licensed dealer, Texas does not currently require background checks for firearms sold or traded at gun shows by private individuals or unlicensed vendors.
Regardless of how the gun is obtained, unlawful possession of a firearm is considered a third-degree felony in Texas, which is punishable with up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
But under federal law, which supersedes state law, a convicted felon can’t legally own a gun under any circumstances — even if the gun is kept in their home. If a federal agent finds a gun in the home of a convicted felon, that person can be charged with a felony.
On Monday, the man who sold the gun used by Malik Faisal Akram to take hostages at a Colleyville synagogue in January was sentenced to nearly eight years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Investigators tied Williams to the sale through phone records, according to officials, and Williams later admitted to selling Akram the gun about two days before the hostage situation.
Williams, who had four prior felonies, also admitted to selling up to 15 other guns in the past, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Andrew Magliolo.
