13 May 2023 , 08:02
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A man who didn't want his girlfriend to get an abortion fatally shot her during a confrontation in a Dallas parking lot, police said.
Texas banned abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy in September 2021. But nearly all abortions have been halted in Texas since Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer, except in cases of medical emergency.
Gabriella Gonzalez, 26, was with her boyfriend, 22-year-old Harold Thompson, on Wednesday when he tried to put her in a chokehold, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. She had returned the night before from Colorado, where she had gone to get an abortion.
He was jailed on a murder charge on Friday.
"It is believed that the suspect was the father of the child," the affidavit said. "The suspect did not want (Gonzalez) to get an abortion."
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Gabriella Gonzalez (NBC News)Surveillance video from the parking lot shows Ms Gonzalez "shrugs him off," police said, and the two continue walking.
Thompson then pulls out a gun and shoots Ms Gonzalez in the head. She falls to the ground and Thompson shoots her multiple times before running away, the affidavit said.
Thompson was arrested later Wednesday and is being held in the Dallas County Jail without bond. Court records did not list an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
The shooting happened near a gas station on the 800 block of south Walton Walker Boulevard (NBC News)Ms Gonzalez's sister was at the scene and heard the shooting, police said. Another witness saw Thompson try to choke Ms Gonzalez, but couldn't call police because she did not have her cell phone.
At the time of the shooting, Thompson had been charged with assault of a family member, who accused him of choking her in March.
The affidavit from March does not specifically name Ms Gonzalez as the person who was assaulted.
But it does say the woman told police that Thompson "beat her up multiple times throughout the entirety of their relationship" and that Thompson told police the woman was pregnant with his child at that time.
The woman "reiterated that she is scared of the suspect because he had made threats to harm her family and her children," according to the affidavit.