Greenville protesters want shooting suspect freed from Hunt County Jail

More than 50 protesters gathered outside the Hunt County Sheriff’s Department on Saturday night calling for the release of the man arrested in last weekend’s mass shooting at a Greenville party.

Brandon Ray Gonzales, 23, is being held on a capital murder charge in the Hunt County Jail, accused in last Sunday’s shooting that killed two 23-year-old men from North Texas and wounded six others. His bail is set at $1 million.

Sgt. Jeff Haines, a sheriff’s spokesman said last week that Texas Rangers and sheriff’s investigators remain confident that “we have the right suspect.”

But family, friends and other supporters of Gonzales say investigators arrested the wrong man: “We’ve got to get an innocent man out of jail,” brother Gabriel Gonzales said in an interview last week.

That was the sentiment at Saturday’s protest, organized by the Rev. Jeff Hood, a Dallas activist who said he believes the 23-year-old is innocent.

“But even more than that, I believe that he is being railroaded by a sheriff that does not have enough evidence to keep him,” Hood said.

A witness who identified Gonzales as the gunman told police the suspect was playing dice in a restroom at the party venue just before the shooting, according to his arrest-warrant affidavit. About 15 seconds after he left the restroom, the witness told police, he pulled a handgun and started shooting.

Kevin Berry Jr. of Dallas and Byron Craven Jr. of Arlington, both 23, were killed. Six other people were shot, and several more were injured trying to escape the venue, some crawling through a broken window to flee, authorities said.

Students called the party a celebration to wrap up Texas A&M University-Commerce’s homecoming week, though the school said the party was not sanctioned by the university.