Gym parking lot murder suspect found in Mexico, deported back to US
Cristian Avila-Solis. Photo courtesy Tarrant County Jail.
AUSTIN, Texas - A man wanted in connection to a May 2022 deadly shooting at a South Austin gym was found in Mexico, and deported back to the U.S., U.S. Marshals said.
According to U.S. Marshals, Cristian Avila-Solis, 21, was charged with murder after a man was shot and killed in an LA Fitness parking lot in South Austin. Avila-Solis is the third suspect identified since the incident.
Austin police said at 8:08 p.m. on May 23, 2022, officers responded to a report of a shooting at 1824 W Slaughter Lane.
When officers arrived, they found a victim with obvious trauma on the ground. Despite life-saving measures, the victim, later identified as 36-year-old Jose Alberto Aguirre Castellanos, was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Since the shooting, an Austin-based task force was in communication with Mexican officials to help find Avila-Solis, a U.S. citizen who was believed to have fled to Mexico following the shooting.
On Feb. 17, Mexican officials found and detained Avila-Solis in San Luis Potosi for an immigration violation. The next day, Avila-Solis was deported back to the U.S. to Fort Worth where he was handed over to members of the North Texas Fugitive Task Force, closing a 20-month fugitive investigation.
Avila-Solis was booked into the Tarrant County Jail and is awaiting extradition to Travis County.
In August 2022, the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force arrested 21-year-old John Wiley Bagwell in Palmer Lake, Colorado, with the assistance of the USMS Colorado Violent Offenders Task Force. Bagwell was also wanted for first-degree murder in connection with the May 2022 shooting.