Sister: Homicide victim had kind heart

Clovis' first homicide victim of 2023 was a family man, according to his sister, Crystal Trujillo.

Oscar Trujillo, 28, loved fishing, riding his bike and playing 25-cent video games with family members.

He was an "amazing person," Crystal Trujillo said.

"He could fix anything and everything. He was my McGyver," a reference to a TV series character who was a mechanical genius.

Oscar Trujillo was a hard worker, too, his sister said. "I never saw anybody who worked harder."

He "had the kindest heart," she said. "He would never say 'no' to a friend or family. He was an amazing, brother, uncle and son. I never knew him to have a mean bone in his body. My brother was not an aggressor."

Oscar Trujillo was fatally shot in the head on Jan. 1. Police initially arrested the shooter and charged him with murder, but have since declared Ian Michael Downs of Littlefield was acting in self-defense.

"The night of the shooting, law enforcement interviewed people and we believed we had the grounds to charge Downs," District Attorney Quentin Ray said.

But then investigators reviewed home-security videos from the Northglen neighborhood where the shooting took place. Through audio and video evidence, according to Ray, "it was apparent Downs acted in self-defense."

Court records show Trujillo was driving a vehicle that contained three other people in the Northglen and Wilmington area to meet up with Downs, who, according to court records, believed he would be meeting with a female he had been conversing with on social media.

Some occupants of the car had been communicating with Downs pretending to be a 14-year-old girl the group believed that Downs had been conversing with via the social media app Snapchat, records show.

Downs told investigators he believed the person he was communicating with was in her 20s.

Downs told investigators as he was walking on Northglen a vehicle passed him and stopped. Three people got out of the vehicle and started walking toward him.

Court records state Downs was carrying a pistol. He pulled it out of his waistband and fired three shots at the subjects.

One bullet hit Trujillo in the head.

Trujillo was taken to Plains Regional Medical Center then transported to a Lubbock hospital where he died.