DALLAS (KRLD) - Investigators are back to square one in the double murder at a massive party in Hunt County last month.
A gunman killed Kevin Berry, Dallas, and Byron Craven Junior, Arlington, at the Party Venue outside of Greenville Oct. 26. Six others were hit by gunfire. Another six were hurt trying to flee the venue.
Detectives initially arrested Brandon Gonzalez, 23, Greenville on a charge of capital murder of multiple people. However late yesterday afternoon, the charge was dropped and Gonzalez was released.
"There was no evidence on me," he told reporters. "And out of 750 people, like how is it me. How I get pin-pointed out of everyone. And I wasn't even in the building."
Without offering specifics, the Hunt County Sheriff's office said Gonzalez was released, based partly on exculpatory evidence.
The decision leaves investigators from the Sheriff's Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms without a suspect.
"You start contacting any and every person that was either there and or potentially heard anything related to the shooting and then start expanding your investigation from that source." said Jeff Halstead, former Fort Worth police chief and now a private consultant.
Such a task is time-consuming but necessary, says Halstead. In the days after the shooting, Sheriff Glen Meeks complained that investigators were having a hard time finding witnesses to give them an account of what happened. Now it may also be made harder by the lack of an arrest.
"Many of them will be in fear of coming forward because if this person, the suspect, was that intentional in deliberately shooting one or more persons, then they have to think 'what will they do to me,'" Halstead said.