A Texas man has been charged with capital murder after he gunned down three family members and then called 911 to say he'd shot three burglars in a home invasion.
The identities of the victims has been confirmed as a 38-year-old man named Thomas Kupriakov, a 43-year-old woman named Karen Herrera, and a 65-year-old woman named Leonor Hernandez.
Victims were Suspect's Mother, Sister and Brother-in-Law
Police also noted that the older woman was a family member who lived in the apartment and the other two were family members who were visiting and had been staying there for several days. According to Click2Houston, the victims were Hernandez's mom, his sister and her husband visiting from Canada.
The suspect, Bryan J. Fernandez Hernandez, 27, called 911 just after 3 p.m. on Saturday, saying there were people breaking into his home and that he shot all three of them. He identified himself as the tenant in the apartment. When police arrived, he admitted to shooting the "three home invaders."
When officers arrived, they found all three victims dead from gunshot wounds. HPD said they interviewed Fernandez, who said he called 911 after shooting the alleged burglars.
Investigators later learned, however, that there had been no home invasion and that Hernandez had shot and killed three members of his own family and then lied to investigators in the 911 call.
"The home invasion deal, it's not true. My mom, sister, and her husband were all executed in their apartment," Carlos Flores, Fernandez's half-brother, told ABC13.
Hernandez Had a History of Mental Health Issues
According to court documents Fernandez was convicted of a DWI charge back in 2019 and jailed for 180 days.
The Houston Police Department said they've been called to Hernandez's apartment several times in the past for calls regarding mental health - Once last year and then again earlier this year.
Flores says he always worried his half-brother would flip a switch and hurt someone. "My brother needs to pay for what he did, and he needs to assume the consequences and take charge of that," Flores said.
Hernandez has been arrested and booked into the Harris County Jail.
