Marine Stabbed Wife Before Going On Killing Spree

Marine Stabbed Wife Before Going On Killing Spree

According to Mail Online

Police say a Marine killed after going on a deadly shooting rampage in Texas also is suspected of fatally stabbing his wife in North Carolina.

Jacksonville, North Carolina, police say 21-year-old Rubi Estefania Smith, of Bakersfield, California, was found dead Sunday afternoon in a motel room near Camp Lejeune.

She is the wife of Lance Cpl. Esteban J. Smith, a 23-year-old Marine who died Sunday in a gunfight with Texas authorities.

Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Maureen Krebs says Smith served two combat tours in Afghanistan, returning most recently in November 2012.

Esteban Smith is suspected of going on a two-hour West Texas shooting rampage that left one woman dead and five others wounded.

An assault rifle, handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were recovered from Smith’s vehicle.

Master Sgt. Jonathan Cress, spokesman for Camp Lejeune, said investigators have determined the firearms used in the shootings were not issued by the military.

The body of the Marine’s wife, Rubi Estefania Smith was discovered at around 2pm Sunday at the Sunset Inn – a motel advertising low rates and Jacuzzi tubs near the gates of the sprawling Marine base on the North Carolina coast.

Mrs Smith was discovered after Navy investigators working on the scene in Texas found evidence on the Marine’s body and contacted police in North Carolina.

There are more than 1,500 miles – more than a 22-hour drive – separating the sites of the two incidents.

An autopsy is underway to determine when she died but that evidence collected as part of the ongoing investigation ‘establishes that Esteban Smith appears to be responsible for his wife’s death.’

Esteban Smith, 23, died in a shootout with police early Sunday morning after he randomly fired on five vehicles from his truck as he ran amok through Concho County, Texas, according to Tom Vinger, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

For two hours on Sunday, the man – armed with an assault rifle, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition – opened fire on unsuspecting motorists from his pickup truck as he drove around the remote central Texas county.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said Alicia Torres, 41, was shot dead in her car.

The Texas Rangers and other law enforcement authorities reported multiple shooting scenes in Concho County, a rural community with a population of 4,000 about 250 miles southwest of Dallas.

Authorities have not commented yet on a motive for the shootings, but they believe the gunman chose his targets at random.

The first shooting took place about 4.30am on Sunday when the suspect opened fire on vehicle near Eden, wounding a woman, who was later hospitalized in San Angelo, authorities said.

The suspect wounded two more people a short time later as they sat in their truck outside a convenience store in Brady, and then returned to Eden, where heed fired on another vehicle and wounded another person.

Those three were treated and released.

About 6am, Torres was found shot to death in her car in Eola. Some 15 minutes later, Concho County Sheriff Richard Doane encountered the suspect on a highway north of Eden.

The man opened fire on the squad car, wounding the sheriff.

Doane was taken to a San Angelo hospital with non-life threatening injuries, authorities said.

Moments later, a Highway Patrol trooper and a game warden, who responded to the sheriff’s calls for backup, arrived and engaged the gunman.

He was killed in the ensuing shootout.