The events surrounding the city’s 11th homicide began early Saturday with a “free-for-all” family fight and ended with one man arrested in connection with the stabbing death of his brother, officials said.

About 3:30 a.m. Saturday, police found Joel Lopez-Escobar, age unknown, lying unresponsive in a driveway at 807 Dodds Ave. with stab wounds to his stomach. He was taken to Erlanger hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

The victim’s brother, Josue Lopez-Escobar, 47, was booked on a charge of criminal homicide, and his nephews, Marvin Lopez-Velazquez, 20, and Edwin Lopez-Velazquez, age unknown — Josue Lopez-Escobar’s sons — were booked on charges of accessory after the fact, said Chattanooga police spokeswoman Lt. Kim Noorbergen.

“They were intoxicated. It was a family thing,” Lt. Noorbergen said. “They just got into an argument; and one thing led to another, and it turned deadly on them.”

Witnesses told police they heard arguing outside the residence on Dodds Avenue, and investigators think the fight started outside and moved inside, Lt. Noorbergen said. Police found Marvin Lopez-Velazquez with stab wounds to his arm and forehead, Edwin Lopez-Velazquez with a laceration to his right arm and Josue Lopez-Escobar locked in a bedroom with no apparent injuries, she said.

Josue Lopez-Escobar is scheduled to appear today in Hamilton County General Sessions Court before Judge Ronald Durby, according to police.

Investigators do not yet know what sparked the fight.

“At this point, we don’t know anything more than we did Saturday,” said Sgt. Bill Phillips, supervisor of the Chattanooga Police Department homicide division. “We’re talking to everybody we can to find out as much as we can.”

All the men lived in a pale yellow house with brown trim on Dodds, Sgt. Phillips said. The men, who lived at the house next to a vacant lot for more than a year, did not speak English well, he said.

“It wasn’t really a problem because we had one of our translators,” he said.

Autopsy results were not available from the Hamilton County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday afternoon.

The homicide is July’s second and comes 16 days after the previous homicide, which left 21-year-old Jacquard Petty dead when he was shot in the head after a fight at the 2301 Club on Milne Street. Police arrested Carl Moore in connection with that shooting.

Comments