Suspicious death at southeast Austin homeless camp being investigated as a murder

APD investigating homeless camp death as homicide

APD has confirmed the suspicious death from Thursday night was a murder.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Police Department is investigating the suspicious death at a southeast Austin homeless camp as a homicide. An arrest warrant has been issued for Danny Wing for the murder of David Garcia Tovar.

Officers were dispatched to the homeless camp in the 4400 block of East St Elmo Road around 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 23 after a 911 caller had said his friend was shot and was in a homeless camp, on Todd Lane near East St. Elmo Road.

When officers arrived on scene, they found a deceased white male, who later identified as David Garcia Tovar. An autopsy was performed and the medical examiner ruled the manner of death homicide. The medical examiner also determined that the cause of death was gunshot wounds.

During the course of their investigation, homicide detectives spoke with multiple witnesses who said that a man named Elgin lived in that homeless camp and had personally witnessed the shooting. Witnesses had also told police that a man named Danny Wing was responsible for the shooting.

During the search of the victim's body, detectives found a piece of paper that had multiple phone contacts on it - including one for Elgin. APD used the phone number the victim had for Elgin to call him and he agreed to meet with homicide detectives. Elgin told police officers that he had met Danny Wing in August 2019.

According to Elgin, Danny Wing was at his tent around 2 or 3 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22 talking to Elgin when David came over. When David reached out his hand to shake Wing's hand, Wing allegedly fired a gun into David's stomach. David fell to the ground and Wing stood over him and fired two more times.