LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) - A man wanted in connection to a stabbing that left two people injured is arrested following a brief foot chase in west Laredo over the weekend. Laredo Police arrested Oscar Gilberto Sanchez Martinez, 19, after a brief foot chase near the 800 block of Garden Street Sunday morning.

On Sunday at around 1 a.m. Laredo Police received a call about a suspicious person looking at vehicles at the 800 block of Garden Street.

Officers arrived at a hotel parking lot and attempted to confront the suspect, identified as 19-year-old Oscar Gilberto Sanchez Martinez who then fled on foot.

After a brief chase on foot, police arrested and charged him with evading arrest as well as harassment of a public servant.

Sanchez-Martinez may face additional charges from the Webb County Sheriff’s Office related to a stabbing earlier in the week which resulted in two injuries.

Police say Sanchez Martinez was wanted by the Webb County Sheriff’s Office for aggravated assault.

The investigation remains ongoing.

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) -An altercation leads to a shooting early Monday morning in central Laredo causing one person to end up in the hospital with a gunshot wound and the other behind bars.

Several Laredo Police units and fire trucks swarmed the 100 block of West Elm Street Monday morning at around 2:40 a.m.

Jessica Matute, who lives near the area said she and her husband heard a loud ruckus at that hour.

“We got up from bed and I told my husband let’s tie up the dog because he was loose in the backyard, and we had heard a yell,” said Matute.

Jessica stayed awake praying at 3 a.m.

When she walked outside to check on the noise, she was greeted by a police officer who told her to go inside.

Jessica saw law enforcement officers running down the street.

“It was a moment of fear. Hours passed by and law enforcement was still here. Until 7 a.m. when I was going to school to drop off the girls and there were still police,” said Matute.

According to Investigator Joe Baeza with the Laredo Police Department what Jessica saw in her neighborhood was an altercation that led to a shooting.

“It was a gathering that turned violent one person at the time when officers arrived on location had driven himself or someone drove him to a local ER and was a victim to a gunshot wound,” said Baeza.

The victim was later identified as Joshua Madrigal, age 34 he was shot in the foot.

Reports say the suspect, who police identified as Agustin Zuniga, 46, barricaded himself in the home and threatened to hurt officers or himself.

Due to the threat, both swat and negotiators were called on scene to de-escalate the situation.

Police says Zuniga ultimately surrendered and was arrested.

Zuniga was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Madrigal was treated and released from the hospital.

He was taken to the Webb County Jail.

No word yet on the cause of the altercation.

Below is the last updated version of the story:

An altercation that led to a shooting escalates into a standoff between law enforcement and a barricaded individual.

The incident happened at 3 a.m. at the 100 block of West Elm.

Laredo Police say an argument escalated into a shooting that left one man shot in the leg.

The armed man, identified as Agustin Zuniga, 46 then barricaded himself inside a home at which point both SWAT and negotiation were deployed to diffuse the situation.

Zuniga eventually surrendered without incident and was arrested.

Police say he had two outstanding warrants for indecency with a child and one warrant for indecency with a child through exposure.

He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The case remains ongoing.

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — The owner of a cantina in the South Texas border town of Mission has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for trafficking young girls from Mexico and forcing them to perform sex acts for her bar patrons, officials said Friday.

Rita Martinez, 65, was sentenced to 360 months in prison. Her son, Genaro Fuentes, 41, must serve six years in prison. Both pleaded guilty to facilitating commercial sex, U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani said.

Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane, in McAllen, also ordered them to pay a total of $860,000 in restitution to the victims. Martinez’s bar, Perez Lounge, and Rita’s Sports Bar, also were forfeited by the court, as was her home.

“Martinez’s decades-long business model was simple yet evil: Travel to Mexico, entice poor, young girls across the border with false promises of a better life and then force those girls to engage in sexual acts with her bar’s male patrons,” Hamdani said. “Martinez treated the victims like chattel, while physically and psychologically imprisoning them. Today’s sentence ensures the only person left imprisoned, for decades to come, is Martinez and sends a strong message to human traffickers moonlighting as bar owners — you’re next.”

The court heard testimony of a woman who was 12 when Martinez brought her from Mexico and started trafficking her as a sex worker in her cantina.

Martinez smuggled women and girls from Mexico across the South Texas border and forced them to engage in commercial sex at her bar with male patrons prosecutors said. She accepted money from clients before allowing the girls to leave the bar for sex acts, they said.

She claimed to use the money toward their fee for being brought into the United States, and some were forced to live in her home.

“Human trafficking cannot be tolerated, especially those who exploit many victims and use the promise of America to lure vulnerable women and children into the United States, only to coerce them into commercial sex acts,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. “The Justice Department remains committed to identifying and prosecuting human trafficking cases, and seeking restitution for the victims who survived these heinous crimes.”

The FBI also helped with the investigation.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline is free at (888) 373-7888.

LAREDO, Tx (KGNS) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 16-percent of Texas households lack consistent access to food that is both healthy and affordable.

According to the Texas Tribune, the state has the second highest rate of food insecurity in the nation.

Many food banks across the state are reporting the number of families in need of assistance is increasing but as the demand grows, so does the need for supplies to fill up food banks.

Unfortunately, food banks are receiving less food to give out, but according to employees at the South Texas Food Bank, they continue to provide resources, especially through the holiday season.

“This program in general is so important because it allows the Laredo Community to be a part of the efforts,” said Alexander Carraman. “We do have funds that are coming in for these families, so maybe we do have to reduce the scale or overall if it becomes more intensive, there might be a small dip but it shouldn’t be as drastic as from the other programs because there is no funding, just whatever we can gather so we can distribute.”

South Texas Food Bank officials say that distribution is less than it should.

For example, the food bank was able to provide 120 pounds of food per family but due to the shortage, now they are only able to provide 75 pounds of food per family.

Alma Boubel Director of the food bank said there’s several reasons behind the shortage, which include inflation, gas prices and the rise of families in need of service.

“You know there’s a lot of empty racks and I just can’t keep up with the demand. We constantly continue to order and order in food and it’s very expensive,” said Boubel. “I guess the least expensive would get a truck full of rice and beans and that is like 24 to 26 thousand dollars, given the day that you order the product and when you want to deliver and all that. You know protein is outrageous, you know protein, a truckload... I don’t know, chicken I guess maybe the least expensive can ran up to 35 to 40 thousand. Ground beef, I just heard that there’s ground beef the other day that there’s ground beef for $8 or $10 a pound!”

Boubel adds before the coronavirus pandemic, roughly $85,000 families received support.

Now, more than 260,000 families are in need of the service.

The South Texas Food Bank Director adds that despite the shortage, they won’t stop giving out fruits, rice, beans, water, and veggies to all those families during these difficult times.

Today, about 3.3 million Texans receive federal food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP and more older Texans are now receiving monthly SNAP assistance that provides food bags for people in need.

WEBB COUNTY, TX . (KGNS) - Correctional officers at the Webb County Jail were treated to a celebratory luncheon for their efforts in keeping the jail in order.

On Friday morning county jailers and employees were rewarded with food and music for passing the Texas Jail inspection for the 15th consecutive year.

The inspection took place in October by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards during an unannounced visit.

Areas inspected include classification, medical, licensing, and training as well as many others.

Correctional officers say it takes a team effort to continue to keep the jail safe for employees and inmates.

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) - The teen who was charged with murder in Laredo’s sixth homicide is taken to the Webb County Juvenile Youth Village.

Overnight, with the help of the U.S. Marshalls Fugitive Task Force, the 16-year-old juvenile was transported to the custody of the Laredo Police Department.

The teen was charged with the murder of Roberto Chavez, age 19, and now awaits the court process while at the Webb County Youth Village.

While authorities say the search for the suspect is over, authorities remind the public that certain cases take time.

“At this point for the year, my understanding is that we’re at 100 percent clearance rate for arrests on homicides. So sometimes when there isn’t an immediate arrest, sometimes people are like, ‘well there’s something wrong on the case, or they’re just sitting around doing nothing’, which could be further than the truth,” said Investigator Joe Baeza. “These cases sometimes have different things that come across and so it makes the time of an arrest a little longer.”

The police department said they are working with the Webb County District Attorney’s Office as they continue their investigation.

LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) - One of the newest staff members at UISD can sit, roll over, and detect drugs on campus.

The UISD K-9 program continues to welcome new officers to detect and confiscate illegal drugs in schools.

The program was first established in 2022 and carries on that mission today.

K-9 officer Hlora is a German Shorthaired Pointer and is the newest member of the force.

She joins Eda and Xanti as part of the UISD K-9 handlers program.

One K-9 handler tells us that Princess Lora, as she likes to call her, is a tough worker who gets the job done.

UISD K-9 Handler Sandra Carmona told us, “She is a hard-worker and very playful, but she stole my heart. My late husband just passed away and I needed her and she needed me. She’s been--so far-- she’s been really good.”

The K-9 officers can recognize four basic narcotics.

They include marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine