FLORESVILLE, Texas (KENS) – A Texas community is in mourning after a beloved barber was killed in an alleged road rage shooting.
A man is in jail and charged with tampering with evidence, but no one has been charged with murder.
To honor the victim, hundreds gathered outside the barbershop of Octavian Estrada, known to many as Tave, for a vigil over the weekend.
Among those who turned out was a single mother who said Octavian gave her kids free haircuts.
He was more than just the neighborhood barber.
To many, Octavian was a mentor, someone to look up to and someone who always gave back.
“He was the person who if a loved one passed away, he would go and cut hair,” Octavian’s niece, Carolena Estrada, said.
“He’d go to the morgue, and go and do that. He did it all. He never said no,” Octavian’s nephew Ryan Estrada remembered.
Carolena and Ryan were in shock on Friday when they heard he had been gunned down while driving to San Antonio from Floresville.
“I was on my way home from San Antonio, and I passed by it, and we were trying to figure out, ‘Hey, he ain’t answering his phone,’” Ryan described.
Bexar County investigators say it was a shooting that stemmed from road rage when Octavian pulled into a Valero parking lot off Highway 181 South.
According to an arrest warrant, Octavian was shot in the chest after approaching a truck.
With help from a surveillance video and witnesses, investigators caught up to 34-year-old Sean Anthony Samaniego.
Samaniego is accused of tampering with evidence.
He told investigators his friend he calls “Money” actually fired the shots. He claims he just drove away and got rid of the trailer that was attached to his truck.
“He was young, healthy,” Carolena said. “Never in our minds did we think this situation would happen to our family.”
Many customers, from children to adults, are heartbroken over what happened.
Sunday’s vigil wasn’t about the tragedy but instead about celebrating who the 39-year-old son, husband, uncle and friend was.
“He’s impacted so many generations,” Carolena added.
Octavian is survived by his wife and several siblings.
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