Texas manhunt: DACA recipient Judas Deluna killed Rahman Rupani, a good Samaritan who helped Deluna’s other victim
Police in Houston arrested a Dreamer wanted for murdering a father who came to the aid of a shooting victim killed by the same.
Identified as Judas Deluna, 21, the police are seeking the accused killer of Rahman Rupani, 30, a good Samaritan who attempted to help another victim shot by Deluna.
Judas Deluna
The shooter happened outside DJ’s Food Mart in Harris County on January 26 after Deluna got into a fight with a man in the parking lot and retrieved a gun from his vehicle. He then returned to shoot him. Rupani, whose father owns the store, was inside. He came to the shooting victim’s aid and was shot, too. Rupani had two young children and a wife.
Deluna, who has managed to evade capture for three weeks, is an illegal immigrant who received protection from deportation as a DACA recipient, an Obama-era program that former-President Obama admitted was unconstitutional and has come under scrutiny during the recent budget negotiations.
“This is not a depiction of who Dreamers are, who DACA holders are,” Cesar Espinosa, an immigrant rights activist said as he tried to downplay crimes committed by DREAMers and DACA recipients.
“Studies have shown immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than born citizens because even if you make a small mistake it could lead to something as big as a deportation for ourselves,” Espinosa added.
According to Robert Hurst with Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Deluna’s family is battling deportation. His dad, Manuel, served four months of a two-year sentence stemming from a SWAT standoff in November 2016. He barricaded himself after assaulting his wife and daughter.
Five years earlier, Manuel Deluna’s other son, Eric Deluna, planned an ambush on an 18-wheeler full of drugs. It was part of a notorious federal sting that went bad aimed at the Los Zetas cartel. A federal informant died in a shootout that also left a Harris county sheriff’s deputy wounded.
Eric Deluna is serving a 30-year sentence.
Anyone with information on Judas Deluna is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.
