Man Wanted For Shooting Ex In Slaying Captured On Chilling Video Kills Himself As Authorities Close In

A man wanted for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend in California in front of her 3-year-old daughter killed himself with a single gunshot Saturday as police in Texas began to close in on him.

The manhunt for Herbert Nixon Flores, 46, began days earlier after graphic surveillance footage released by the Los Angeles Police Department showed a man authorities identified as Flores chasing down his 35-year-old ex-girlfriend Karen Ruiz Wednesday and shooting her multiple times as a child can be heard screaming. Flores then drove off.

The FBI quickly issued a reward for information on the whereabouts of Flores, a known MS-13 gang member who also went by the nickname “Shyboy,” noting he should be considered “armed and dangerous.”

Investigators learned that the 46-year-old had fled to Texas where he was visiting family, according to a statement from the Irving Police Department.

The Irving Police Department’s Fugitive Unit and Criminal Information Center launched an investigation and were able to track Flores to Arlington.

“While officers were monitoring the location, Flores was seen getting inside a vehicle and began traveling towards Dallas,” police said.

With the assistance of Dallas Police air and ground units, authorities were able to track his movements until marked police vehicles could arrive at the scene.

“The initial pursuit was covert with the helicopter,” Irving Police Officer Robert Reeves told Oxygen.com, adding that authorities did not use lights or sirens and were waiting for the best opportunity to stop the vehicle to minimize the risk to others.   

Once Flores realized he was being followed, Reeves said he abandoned the vehicle in a parking lot and started to walk on foot.

As police cars converged upon him, Flores took out a gun and fatally shot himself, police said.

“When the marked squads were driving up on Herbert, he saw the vehicles and shot himself before they were even able to initiate a pedestrian stop,” Reeves said.

Ruiz had been dropping the couple’s 3-year-old daughter off at the home of a babysitter on Wednesday when she was killed, according to local station KNBC.

The surveillance footage released by police shows Ruiz getting out of her vehicle just as another car drives up and pulls in behind her. She quickly recognizes the driver and begins to scream and run toward the home for help, but the man is able to chase her down, firing multiple times. Loud screaming can be heard in the background.

Detective Sharon Kim told KNBC that the couple’s daughter had been in the car at the time of the shooting.

Los Angeles Police said in the statement that officers arrived at the scene at 9:35 a.m. Wednesday and discovered Ruiz with “multiple gunshot wounds.” She was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

Before the fatal shooting, the couple had a volatile history together.

“[Ruiz] had several reports made against him over the years and most recently took out a restraining order against him due to some violent acts he committed against her,” Kim told local station KTLA.

Police have said the 3-year-old girl is now with family.