CRIME

Shots fired at pickup truck led to car chase, Mustang Ridge police say

Roberto Villalpando, rvillalpando@statesman.com

A driver is accused of firing shots at a group of men in another pickup, who then chased after him across county lines and alerted authorities, court documents say.

According to an arrest affidavit, three men were in a silver pickup on Nov. 7 leaving a gas station at the intersection of FM 812 and Texas 21 in western Bastrop County. A blue Ford pickup almost hit them, and as they went around the vehicle, they honked at the driver, the men told police.

But the blue Ford followed the men, passed them and cut them off, forcing them to stop, according to the affidavit. The driver of the Ford got out and began shooting at the men in the silver pickup, they told police.

The men then followed the blue pickup as it sped west on Texas 21 toward Mustang Ridge in southern Travis County because “what the other driver did was wrong, and the police should know about it. They wanted to inform police,” the affidavit says.

The men followed the blue pickup to a residence on the outskirts of Mustang Ridge, where it was abandoned after getting stuck on a tree stump, according to the affidavit. There, police arrived and the men told authorities what happened.

An investigation by Mustang Ridge police determined that the owner of the blue Ford pickup was 32-year-old Brian Rene Castillo, the affidavit says. When police interviewed his wife, she said her restraining order against him “prohibited him from possessing any firearms, but he stole her gun when they separated back in January 2019.”

Police have charged Castillo with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with bail set at $150,000. He was not listed in Travis County Jail on Monday.