Garland police looking for man involved in fatal shooting and apartment fire

The Garland Police are looking for the culprit behind the murder that led to the car crash that started the fire and the evacuation of the apartment.

Garland police say it happened overnight here on the 4600 block of Saturn Road. Emergency personnel arrived following several reports that a vehicle had crashed into the compound building and started a fire.

As residents evacuated, authorities realized that more than just a building fire had broken out at the scene.

“When the officers arrived, we learned that two people had been shot,” said Matt Pesta of the Garland Police Department.

Police found two men with gunshot wounds inside the car. One of the men, identified as 22-year-old Quincy Lee Branch, died in hospital. Police say an unidentified 19-year-old is being treated for his wounds.

What started as a machine calling structures has now become a murder investigation.

How did the car get there? Was it intentional? Pesta said during a press conference. “Did something happen that caused the car to go over the curb and crash into the building? We’re not entirely sure.”

Police said the Garland Fire Department dealt with the blaze relatively quickly. However, a series of traumatic events shocked residents.

“I heard a noise, bam bam, and then a very loud sound that kind of threw me off the couch,” said Andy Mullins, a resident of a nearby home.

Video of the doorbell broadcast by NBC 5 captured the entire scene as residents looked on in shock and called for help.

“I looked out again and saw someone jump off the front seat and run around the apartment complex, so I said, ‘Call 911,'” Mullins said. “And as I was talking to them, I looked out the window and started hearing the car rev up and saw smoke everywhere and fire started building up in the front.”

Everyone in the apartment building made it out safely, only to find out that the young man had been killed.

“I didn’t know the circumstances behind it,” Mullins said. “I didn’t know that everything is much worse. I just thought the gentlemen stole the car and ran away. I didn’t understand why he was spinning. I didn’t understand it.”

Anyone with information about Branch’s murder is asked to call Garland Police at 972-485-4840.