Two people were shot and killed inside the leasing office at The Park at Woodlake Apartments in west Houston on Thursday night, and Houston police said 24 hours later that no arrests had been made. Investigators also said they still had no clear motive.
The killing took one of the people who made the complex run: Rosie Ybarra, a 67-year-old leasing agent, whom her family described as a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and foster mother. Police believed Ybarra and a 47-year-old manager were shot shortly before the office closed, turning an ordinary workday ending into a homicide scene.
Her daughter, Krystal Martinez, said the medical examiner's office told the family that Ybarra was shot in the head. Martinez said her mother stayed on the job at 67 because she wanted to give the family a good life, and she said the violence robbed Ybarra of any chance to fight back. Her sister, Elia Ybarra, asked, “What are we going to do without her?”
That loss landed in a place many residents know by routine: the leasing office, where tenants go to pay rent, ask questions and settle problems. Police were seen entering and leaving the complex on Friday, but the basic questions still had no answers a day after the shooting. One resident told ABC13 he was still trying to download surveillance video that may help investigators, a reminder that even in a busy apartment complex, the evidence that could explain what happened may still be locked away, unreviewed.
Sabrina Salinas said Ybarra was “a strong, outspoken, very kind” woman who was always smiling, with red lipstick and red hair. She said Ybarra was working to put money into her family’s pocket and called her the rock of the family. For now, Houston police have not said who opened fire, and the case remains defined less by what investigators know than by what they do not: who killed Rosie Ybarra and the manager, and why they were targeted inside their own workplace.
