Search continues for ex accused of fatally shooting woman's 12-year-old son in Cloverleaf
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Deputies are still searching for a man accused of murdering a 12-year-old boy in Cloverleaf, urging the public to help find him.
Carlos Fernandez's mother told ABC13 that her son was trying to protect her when he died.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office held a press conference Friday morning as the search for the woman's ex-boyfriend, Terry Rivera, continues. He's charged with capital murder.
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said Rivera is considered to be armed and incredibly dangerous.
"Our heart breaks. We shouldn't be burying our children," Gonzalez said. "Gun violence is a terrible thing, but especially when it impacts our youngest and our brightest."
Family members also attended Friday's press conference, also making a plea to the public to help find Rivera.
"Losing my nephew, that's probably one of the hardest things we've had to deal with because he was the life of the family. Always in a good mood. Always positive. Never seen him mad. He was a protector all the way 'til the very end. He always protected - whether it was his cousins, his sisters, his mom. He always put everybody else in front of him," Carlos' uncle, Delfino Gonzales, said.
The boy's mother, Ashley Rostro, said she begged authorities to protect her from her abusive ex, but she feels like that didn't happen. She says Rivera killed her son with a gun he stole from her home when he broke in and threatened her just days before.
She said she feels like her family was failed by the system.
PREVIOUS REPORT: Cloverleaf 12-year-old murdered while defending his family from mother's abusive ex, she says
At about 3 a.m. on Monday, March 4, Rostro said she was asleep in a bedroom with her boyfriend and two daughters, ages 6 and 7, while Carlos slept nearby in the living room.
HCSO previously reported that the entire family slept in the room together and that Carlos was shot and killed as he slept next to his sisters.
Rostro said Rivera came into the apartment through an unlocked window.
"Just the sound of the window going up, I automatically knew who it was," she said.
Rostro said Rivera reached through the window and pushed a television off a dresser. Charging documents state that he said, "Yeah, what's up? What's up?"
Rostro said her son heard the commotion and ran to the room as Rivera opened fire, fatally shooting him four times.
"He's my protector. He ran in there trying to save me," she said.
Rostro said she is working to be "strong" and act as her son's "voice."
"He wants me to do this. I have to. He's not here to speak for himself," she said.
Rostro said Rivera had broken into the family's apartment Friday, just three days before the shooting. She believes he broke in through a window he "knew was unlocked" and stole her gun.
Hours later, around 10 p.m., Rostro said he returned to the apartment with the couple's two girls and attacked her with the weapon. She said he cocked the gun as he ran up to her.
SEE ALSO: Former boyfriend of murdered 12-year-old's mother identified as suspect in boy's killing, HCSO says
"He just grabs me by the neck and pushes me down, and then he makes his way inside the apartment, starts throwing everything," she explained.
Rostro said when Rivera came out of the apartment, he brandished the gun again.
"Pointing it. Like, trying to threaten me," she said.
Rostro called 911. She says she told responding Harris County deputies she wanted to press charges. She said she was worried that the window did not lock.
She detailed Rivera's violent criminal history for them. She said she wanted a protective order and the gun out of his hands. Investigators now believe Rivera used that same gun to kill Carlos.
"They let him go with that, too," she said.
The Harris County District Attorney's Office declined charges after Friday's attack. A spokesperson told ABC13 their paperwork made no mention of a gun. However, the sheriff's office said they notified the DA of the weapon.
"The information we have is that the gun being present was mentioned in our communications to the district attorney's office," Gonzalez said during Friday's press conference. "Now, I don't know if it was added in the report afterwards, but for purposes of potentially filing a charge, it was mentioned. Ultimately it was decided that a charge wasn't to be filed at that particular moment."
Attorney Anthony Osso Jr. previously worked that same role in the district attorney's office, sifting through charges, and says the attack qualified Rivera for several felony charges, including the aggravated assault of a family member with a deadly weapon.
ORIGINAL REPORT: 12-year-old boy dies after wanted gunman fires shots into Cloverleaf-area apartment, deputies say
Osso added that Rivera's criminal history should have been taken into consideration.
In 2014, Rivera was charged with strangling a female family member but pleaded down to a lesser offense. The victim obtained an emergency protective order. In 2015, he was charged with shooting a gun out of a moving vehicle. In 2023, he was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon but, again, pleaded guilty to a lesser offense.
"When you're called on a domestic violence scene, you're going to want to look at prior domestic violence," he said.
Rostro said the same deputy that responded to the Friday attack huddled over her son's body, performing CPR Monday.
"I just told her so many things, you know? I'm like, 'Is this what it takes for me to get a protection order?'"
Authorities and family members are asking anyone who may be harboring Rivera to turn him in. Deputies said Rivera's truck was recovered, but did not say where.
Anyone with information is urged to call HPD at 713-308-8800 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS. Up to $5,000 is being offered as a reward.
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