Original subtitles

The most heart-wrenching part of it

is knowing that the person who is guilty is still walking free.

I knew we had the shooter.

Kalamazoo Michigan police

have just been alerted to an injured man

in the parking lot of a liquor store on portage street.

Not knowing what to expect, multiple units are dispatched

to the address.

I automatically know that it's go time.

The adrenaline spikes, blood pressure spikes,

and I have to consciously calm myself down.

When I'm responding to this, I am on very high alert.

I exited my patrol cruiser and walked in from a distance,

'cause I don't want to get shot.

I walk up all, I saw was that

there was somebody lying on the ground.

Officer Oliver observes that the man's breathing is labored.

I could see that he had two bullet-like holes

on the right side of his chest and one exit wound,

which appeared to be an exit wound from a bullet,

on the left side of his chest.

It was at this point that I really went into paramedic mode.

We immediately started cpr... Chest compressions.

I could see that the victim was trying to take a breath again,

which, to me, indicated that he had a pulse.

Ems arrive and prepare the man for transport.

I told the paramedics in the back of the ambulance,

"you guys just work on him and I'll drive."

At the hospital,

emts rushed the man into surgery.

It was at that point that we saw

that his name was Gabriel Montanez.

Unfortunately, Gabriel dies on the table.

His death is ruled a homicide.

Gabriel and I were together for nearly six years.

We share a daughter together, Aryana.

He was... an energetic father.

He enjoyed going shopping with her,

which of course is a young girl's dream.

Me and my dad did like to go shopping a lot.

We'd just shop for lots of things...

We shopped for anything that we saw that we might like.

But mostly he was a shoe addict, so...

We mostly shopped for shoes.

My father was very affectionate with our family...

He always wanted a hug,

and he never wanted to see anybody feel sad or mad.

When I first heard about what had happened, I was in shock.

I didn't really know how to feel or what to feel.

He was the rock of the family.

Now that he's gone, my family are having their kids now.

And he doesn't even get to meet them,

he doesn't even get to be a part of that.

And that's very sad.

Back at the crime scene,

the murder investigation begins.

Investigators set up a perimeter with police tape

and begin examining the area around where Gabriel was shot.

Officers located some blood

that was believed to be possibly from the victim.

This blood trail would indicate, from experience,

that the victim was not shot in the location where he was found.

Cop: Yeah. Yeah. Still got your tape handy?

We started to canvass the area.

There was apartment buildings that were close by.

There was also residential neighborhood that was close by,

so we needed to fan out and begin to knock on doors.

One of the witnesses that had called in to dispatch

was later located and interviewed.

He provided information that, when confronted,

this male then fled the area on foot to the east.

It was a very big moment in the investigation

to be able to get eyewitnesses

that could describe suspects or individuals.

I'm going to work a little bit towards porch road.

But I do feel that the clock is ticking...

Time is typically against me.

11, do you want to go find a good spot?

We need to identify who did this

and stop them from doing this again to someone else.

Kalamazoo Michigan police

are investigating the death of 31-year-old Gabriel Montanez,

but have yet to identify any suspects,

leaving his family desperate for answers.

The frustrating part about Gabriel's case

was hoping that they will find enough evidence

to be able to prove who did it.

The most heart-wrenching part of it is knowing

that the person is still walking free.

Now, hours into the investigation,

detectives must identify a suspect.

They begin by looking into Gabriel's background.

Victimology is our first step

in a homicide investigation.

We have to learn who the victim is,

what he's about,

what triggers him,

what his lifestyle is like.

That sort of leads me along the way

when I decide what direction to go in with the investigation,

and who I try to speak to next.

Part of victimology is that we do look into

how many times they've had contact with the police.

What has been the nature of those complaints?

Gabriel had been called upon by the police

a few days before his homicide.

And that incident involved his girlfriend, Kimberly.

She was at work, and he was hanging around at her work,

and she wanted him removed.

That albeit small contact could definitely be the catalyst

for a possible homicide.

That's why I wanted to talk with Kimberly.

Investigators dig into Kimberly's background

and find a current address.

She lived in the apartment building

that bordered the crime scene

where Gabriel's body had been found.

I could not avoid seeing that as a possibility that Kimberly

knew something about the crime, was a witness to the crime,

or had some information as to who could have targeted Gabriel.

Investigators obtained a search warrant

for Kimberly's apartment,

unsure of what they might encounter when they arrive.

There was an entry team that had been assembled...

Myself and another SWAT operator.

Ascending the stairwells

up to where Kimberly's apartment was at.

There's a lot of things that are going through my mind

at that time... Could she be a victim?

Is there the suspect inside of there that's lying in wait?

So there's a lot of unknowns that are happening

before this door gets opened.

It's been several hours

since the murder of 31-year-old Gabriel Montanez

in kalamazoo, Michigan,

and SWAT team officers

are entering the apartment of his ex-girlfriend, Kimberly.

I remember seeing that there was a bedroom

located off the living room.

It was a white female who sat up in the bed and confirmed

that it was Kimberly, at that time.

What was seemingly odd at the time

was that Kimberly was still in bed,

even when we opened the door, which was kind of suspicious

due to the length of time that we had been there

and how loud we were being with our announcements

given that time of night.

Investigators then ask Kimberly

to come to the station for questioning.

Detective Joe Paul sits first chair for the interview.

Kimberly was very aloof.

She didn't know what was going on,

she didn't understand why she was there,

why we wanted to talk to her.

She genuinely seemed like she didn't know what was going on.

Kimberly tells detectives

that she returned home from work around 12:55 A.M.,

after speaking with Gabriel,

and claims she was alone for the rest of the evening.

Her reaction seemed genuine...

She genuinely seemed like she didn't know

that Gabriel was gone.

She didn't name anybody specifically,

but she started to get into all these guys

that she was involved with sexually in addition to Gabriel,

saying that Gabriel didn't know about them

and they didn't know about Gabriel.

But we're starting to think that

there's a little bit more to this story

as far as some of these people who Kimberly's involved with.

Detectives then ask Kimberly more about

what she was doing that night.

It seemed really strange that Kimberly was... she claimed

to have been sound asleep and didn't really know why

police were knocking at her door.

And here, her boyfriend

had just been shot and killed outside of her apartment.

Her response was very bizarre to us.

We will employ the tactic

of having multiple detectives talk with Kimberly.

I myself went in last to talk with Kimberly,

because I had been made aware of the other statements

that she had given to the other officers,

and I knew that, very likely, based on her mannerisms

and the way in which she was responding to the two detectives

who were males, that she may respond more openly to me.

She was definitely telling me portions of the truth,

but I was very critical of the details

that she was not providing.

It was very clear to me

that she was not going to share information

that was going to help me further the case investigatively

and, at that point, without much information.

I was going to have to let her walk.

Over 24 hours have passed since Gabriel Montanez was shot.

Out of leads, detectives return to canvass the neighborhood,

looking for surveillance video from the night of the shooting.

We located surveillance video

at a gas station which was kitty-corner

to the scene of the crime.

Detectives return to the station to review the footage

from shortly before the time of the murder.

We watched the video

and we saw a buick pull into the parking lot.

We're able to get the plate, we run the plate,

and who's it registered to?

Kimberly.

Kalamazoo police have obtained security camera footage

showing a car registered

to Gabriel Montanez's girlfriend, Kimberly,

near the crime scene just moments before his murder.

When I learn the time difference

between the time stamp on the video

as well as the time that Kimberly had told me

that she came home from work,

and had tucked in, and never went out again,

it's concerning to me that her vehicle is at the gas station,

and why she didn't share that information with me.

Detectives continue watching the footage

and notice a man exiting Kimberly's car.

One of the people in the vehicle

is a subject who I'm familiar with...

I've dealt with in the past.

And that individual's name is Ellis.

While detectives search for Ellis,

Gabriel's family mourns his loss.

My daughter had her quincea�era

and that is a celebration of turning 15...

It's a celebration of becoming a young lady.

And her father Gabriel had one of the biggest roles.

That's just one monumental highlight of my daughter's life

that he's going to miss.

He's going to miss walking her down the aisle.

He's going to miss her first baby.

He's going to miss when she graduates

high school or college.

There will constantly be reminders

of how much we miss him and how he was taken far, far too soon.

Acting on a tip,

investigators managed to track down Ellis

and find out why he was in Kimberly's car.

When we located Ellis and attempted to interview him,

we were in a block in the neighborhood of kalamazoo

that is heavily traveled.

We were on the front yard of a residence

and Ellis actually had his toddler son with him.

And I began talking with him,

trying to ask for his cooperations.

He denied that that was him.

There's a medley of reasons as to why a person

would be shown a video where they are

obviously the person depicted in the video

and then deny that it's them.

In this situation, I believe

that Ellis was concerned about his safety...

Was concerned about the safety of his child.

I asked Ellis where he was during the murder,

during that time frame.

He used his girlfriend as his alibi...

He said that he was with his girlfriend Samantha.

So at that point, I knew that she was next

on my list of people to interview.

The following day,

detectives ask Ellis's girlfriend, Samantha,

to speak with them at the station.

I asked her what she knew about Ellis

and his involvement in this crime.

Samantha claims that she and Ellis

are not living together anymore, and rarely have contact.

Detective rivard asked Samantha when she last saw Ellis.

I did use the video that we had obtained of Ellis

as a convincing point to try to get Samantha to understand

that we had evidence, we know that Ellis is involved,

and that she needed to cooperate.

Confronted with this information,

Samantha comes clean.

She told me that Ellis had admitted to her

that he was there,

but he would not tell her who had been killed

or who he was with.

As the interview came to a close,

it was very clear to me

that Samantha was not going to cooperate any further with me,

and it was very evident to me that there was some type

of pressure that was being put on Ellis.

Since Ellis isn't talking,

detectives try a different approach.

They obtain a search warrant for Kimberly's car,

knowing Ellis had been inside.

Several things in the car that we found

were items that belong to Kimberly.

We also found belongings that belong to Gabriel Montanez.

And we also located a spent shell casing.

That spent shell casing was a .40 caliber

and that .40 caliber matched the wounds

that Gabriel had received during the homicide.

They also discover a number of traffic citations

in the glove box,

made out to a man named Cornell head.

We now know that Kimberly is somehow involved.

We want to know at this point why there is a shell casing

in the vehicle.

Detectives bring Kimberly back into the station

for questioning.

During the second interview,

Kimberly was a lot more cooperative.

And during that interview,

she then revealed that she had been in her vehicle.

I could tell that she was getting close to the point

where she wanted to lift that load that she had on her

as to who had done this crime.

And that was the point when I knew we had the shooter.

Kimberly, the girlfriend of Gabriel Montanez,

has just provided detectives with the name of the person

she says shot and killed him.

She admitted to me that there was another person

in the vehicle along with her that night,

and that she was romantically involved with him.

Kimberly's version of events was that she had picked up

Cornell head when she arrived home from work,

And that they left, along with Ellis, in the car,

went to McDonald's, and then went to the gas station.

She then said that they returned back to the parking lot

and they were all eating.

She was in the driver's seat,

Cornell was in the front passenger seat,

and Ellis was seated behind her.

She said that she looked out the rear passenger-side window

and she saw Gabe approaching Cornell's door.

The next thing she heard was Cornell's door open.

At that point then, she fled inside of her apartment and hid.

Investigators dig into Cornell head's background.

I was familiar with Cornell head from previous involvements.

I needed to locate him.

I learned the has been arrested in Chicago.

Detective rivard travels to Chicago to interview him.

She starts the interview

by bringing up Kimberly and Gabriel's relationship

to see how Cornell will react.

One of the tactics that I used was to tell him

that I knew that Kimberly had not been honest with him.

That she had in fact rekindled her relationship with Gabriel

and that she was seeing him at the same time

that she was seeing Cornell.

This affected Cornell.

He really loved Kimberly.

It was very clear when I was talking with him

that he had no idea that she had cheated on him.

Hearing this, Cornell changes his story.

He admits to shooting Gabriel when they saw him

as they pulled into the parking lot.

He opened the door from the outside

and Gabriel started to swing a fist at Cornell.

Cornell instantly said that he pulled his gun

from his waistband and he fired the weapon at Gabriel.

Cornell head is arrested and charged

with second-degree murder.

On November 6th, 2018,

he is sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison.

This was a situation where I think Kimberly was was really

kind of playing mind games with both Cornell and Gabriel,

filling their heads with with different ideas and things,

and maybe thinking that Cornell was more of her protector,

and painting a picture of Gabriel being kind of a monster.

This was a memorable case for me...

One I will likely never forget,

because I was able to meet the family very early on

and learn what a valuable member of the family Gabriel was.

I want to be able to give the victims the satisfaction

and the closure.

That's pretty rewarding for me.

If he were really sitting in front of me,

I would tell him how dare him leave us this soon.

I would tell him that he is so dearly missed,

and that the friendship

that we were mending really would have been

the best yet to come.

And he's just sorely missed.

We keep him in our hearts

and we always talk about him every birthday,

every Christmas, every Thanksgiving.

We always keep him alive in memory

and talking about him with everybody,

not in a sad way, but in a happy way,

just to remember the good times.