The man charged with murder in last week’s shooting at a Lewisville confessed to killing his co-worker because she took long breaks and didn’t pay attention to him, according to local news media reports.
At 11:34 a.m. Thursday, police responded to a reported active shooter at the Allegiance Trucking office, 1825 Lakeway Drive, Suite 700, and detained the shooter inside the building. They arrived quickly because the Lewisville Police Department’s temporary headquarters is in the same parking lot. The victim, 37-year-old Tamhara Collazo, sustained five gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The suspect, 51-year-old Travis Lee Merrill, was charged with murder and booked into Denton County Jail, where he remains in lieu of $10 million bail, according to jail records.
NBC DFW reported that according to the probable cause affidavit for Merrill’s arrest, Merrill told police that he was “obsessed” with Collazo, and he was growing more and more mad at her about taking long breaks and that she was “not paying any attention” to him.
Merrill told police that Collazo reported him to HR for watching her on her breaks, and he had to talk to a counselor before returning to work, FOX 4 reported. Collazo began intentionally avoiding him more, making Merrill even angrier and spurring him to buy guns.
On Thursday, he followed her to the parking lot when she took her lunch break, and then he went to his vehicle to get two handguns. When she returned to her cubicle, Merrill ambushed her and fired several shots, according to FOX 4. More than 20 co-workers witnessed the shooting. When police arrived, they took Merrill into custody without incident. He later gave detectives specific dates and times about the breaks Collazo took from work. He said he wanted to cause her pain because she had caused him pain.
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