Who was Paola Nunez Linares? Texas woman fatally shot in road rage incident after her husband 'flips off' other driver
HURST, TEXAS: A 37-year-old Texas woman was shot and killed for no reason in an alleged road rage incident on Monday, July 10. According to a press release from the Hurst Police Department, the incident concerned Paola Nunez Linares and her husband Zane Jones who were travelling in a minivan and another car on East Loop 820 in Hurst, Texas.
“The female's husband was on the scene and reported that they were driving their vehicle,” the statement said, adding “An occupant of the other vehicle fired several shots at them, striking the female”, People reported.
Who was Paola Nunez Linares?
Paola Linares, originally from Guatemala, was rushed to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth following the unfortunate attack. However, it was already too late as Linares breathed her last just after 2 am, as per NBC report. The authorities said that the suspect's vehicle is a small, dark-colored, old model car. A GoFundMe page has been created to help cover the costs of Linares' funeral expenses.
Linares' devastated husband speaks on the tragic event
"As I was passing that car, another car behind me sped up, going like 90 mph, and was like on my bumper", Jones told the outlet. “And I flipped them off," Jones added, alleging that the driver of the other vehicle “slowed down a little bit and shot through the back left window into the back of her head, and I didn't know that she'd been hit in the back of the head at all. She ducked, I thought, and I ducked too, and I said, 'Get out, stay down, I'm getting off.' He shot again and it went through my headrest, through the windshield.”
Jones also said that his “wife was the most surprising person I’ve ever met." He said, "We met on a Switchfoot fan page — a band we both love. And she replied to a post in messenger to a quick that I had, and it turned into an immediate friendship. And I’ve never had a connection like that with anyone. She was so interesting." He further said, "She was a trained photographer, a trained chef, she was a tarot card reader. She was amazing at everything that she did. Knowing her immediately was unlike knowing anyone else. I couldn’t get enough of knowing her,” he added. “Our relationship was immediately organic.”
Linares 'never planned on living in Texas'
Linares “never planned on living in the States,” Jones said. “She told me 100 times she sure as hell never planned on living in Texas.” When the couple's relationship started to evolve over the years, the late Texas woman traveled to visit Jones a few times before he visited Guatemala for 10 days to meet “her family, her culture and her country,” he said. “Our relationship was the most impulsive thing — and rewarding thing — in my life," he added. “Because who would do that? You know?”
Jones asked Linares’ mother, Ana, for permission to propose during the visit. He was eventually granted his mother's blessing. He recalled proposing to Linares in December 2021, "I gave her the ring and then she pulled a ring out of her pocket because she was going to propose to me as well.” They tied the knot in January next year and she decided to work with Jones at Kelly-Moore Paints as a manufacturing training coordinator.
'She died for no reason'
“She died for no reason. Yeah I have a hard time not blaming myself for flipping somebody off who put us in danger twice,” he added, describing the suspect as "just a dude who two times in a five second span almost hit our car. I feel like the only way for this guy to be apprehended is by the pressure from the media,” he continued. “The most I can do for her now is let everybody know who we lost."
'She was like a little light'
Ana said that she talked to her daughter “every day” and they were “very, very close.” They spoke about Linares’ planned trip to visit Ana just two hours prior to the shooting. “Everywhere she went, she was like a little light,” she continued. “Like a little angel. That was my daughter.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Hurst Police Department of Crime Stoppers at 817-469-8477 or 469tips.com.