Texas Couple Who’d Dated Since Middle School and Were Expecting Child Are Killed in Shooting

A Texas couple who’d been together since middle school and were expecting their first child were fatally shot when a vehicle in which they were traveling was fired upon Sunday night.

San Antonio police chief William McManus said at a Sunday press conference that the shooting, which he described as a “targeted hit,” occurred at the intersection of Olive Street and Aransas Avenue. No arrests have been made.

Four people were struck, and the other two victims are expected to survive, KSAT reports.

The fatal victims were identified as Vianeth Ramos, 19, and her boyfriend, 17-year-old Xavier Esquivel. A GoFundMe page launched by Esquivel’s sister to support funeral costs states Ramos was pregnant, and that the couple had been together since middle school.

“They both would have been graduating high school this year, but sadly it is not going to happen,” Esquivel’s sister Desiree Nicole wrote.

Another sister of Esquivel’s, Valeria Stokes, told News 4 San Antonio, that the couple were always together. “You would never see him without her, and you would never see her without him,” she said.

McManus said Sunday police were “not quite sure” of the motive in the shooting. He said at least 20 bullets had been fired at the victims’ vehicle.

He decried the killing as “senseless” and “insane.”

Esquivel’s family is hoping for justice.

“We just want whoever did this to my baby brother and to Vianeth and that unborn baby to come forward and just do what’s right,” said Stokes. “It’s only humane for them to be able to own up to what they did wrong.”

Detectives believe the suspects were driving a white Chevy Tahoe, which fled on Aransas Avenue after the shooting.

Anyone with information is asked to call the San Antonio Police Homicide Unit at 210-207-7635.