Austin Mechanic Killed During Robbery Attempt, Two Men Charged Including Teen Out on Bond

A Night Shift Turned Deadly in a Southeast Austin Parking Lot

On June 15, 2026, at 10:47 p.m., Austin Police officers responded to a call reporting a shooting in the AutoZone parking lot at 2237 East Riverside Drive. What they found was a scene that would shake the surrounding community: the victim, identified as 28-year-old Jose Salgado-Amador, had been shot and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died. He had simply been doing his job.

The investigation revealed that Salgado-Amador was working as a mechanic in the parking lot when he was confronted by a suspect who demanded property and then shot him before fleeing in a vehicle. The first officer arrived within three minutes and found Salgado-Amador with gunshot wounds. The officer performed CPR and applied a tourniquet before Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services arrived and transported him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m.

A Brave and Fatal Act: What Court Documents Reveal

Court documents show that Salgado-Amador tried to take the gun from the suspect when the suspect turned his attention to the other man Salgado-Amador was with. A witness told police the suspect approached the two men and said "mechanico," but then flashed a gun and demanded property from Salgado-Amador. The witness told police that Salgado-Amador complied, and then, when the suspect turned his attention to the witness, Salgado-Amador tried to "wrestle the handgun" from the suspect.

Salgado-Amador was shot during that struggle, and police said the suspect then left the area. It was an act of selflessness — an attempt to protect someone else — that cost him his life. The case is being investigated as Austin's 27th homicide of 2026.

Two Suspects Identified and Arrested

The Austin Police Department charged 19-year-old Israel Medina with capital murder in connection with the shooting, while 26-year-old David Perez Jr. was charged with first-degree aggravated robbery for his alleged role in the homicide. Both Medina and Perez were arrested on June 19. Investigators wasted little time closing in on the suspects after the shooting.

Surveillance cameras in the parking lot captured images of the suspect and his vehicle, and investigators used those cameras along with DPS license plate readers to track Medina and ultimately make an arrest. Travis County jail records show Medina was booked on a Saturday morning, and he is listed as having a $400,000 bond for the capital murder charge. The same day arrest warrants were issued, multiple warrants were also issued for both Medina and Perez for first-degree aggravated robbery related to a separate incident.

A Suspect With a Prior Record — and a Warning Sign

Medina had been out on bond for stealing a car at the time of the killing. Online court records also show that Medina was placed in a diversion program the prior year related to a series of theft and burglary cases. The details paint a troubling picture of a young man cycling through the justice system without meaningful intervention — a pattern that critics of the criminal justice system often point to as a failure with deadly consequences.

For the East Riverside Drive community, the arrest of both suspects brings a measure of accountability, but it doesn't erase the loss of a man who died trying to shield someone else from harm. As the case moves toward prosecution, the question of how a teenager out on bond for car theft allegedly escalated to capital murder will likely draw scrutiny — both in the courtroom and in broader conversations about how Austin handles repeat offenders before tragedies like this one occur.