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First murder in years: 'This is the first homicide since I took office,' says Sheriff Ronny Dodson
By Cindy Perry
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T.J. Dunlap is arrested and charged in Marathon death.
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cindyperry@alpineavalanche
One man is dead and another is in the Brewster County Jail after a weekend shooting outside the Gage Hotel in Marathon.
Held on $100,000 bond is T.J. Dunlap, 47, whose driver's license shows he lives in Presidio but is believed to have recently lived in Lubbock, said Sheriff Ronny Dodson.
The victim of Saturday night's shooting was Richard Lynn Purdy, 48, of Lubbock, Dodson said.
His body was taken to El Paso for an autopsy.
Witnesses told the Brewster County Sheriff's Office that the two men had been drinking in the Gage's bar before they went outside and argued.
A gun was drawn, one man was shot in the head at close range and the shooter got in a car and drove toward Alpine, the witnesses said.
Deputy Shawn Roach was only a half-block from the Gage when he heard the gunshot, Dodson said.
When he arrived at the crime scene, he radioed a description of the suspect's car to the Sheriff's Office dispatcher. State troopers and sheriff's deputies stopped the car and arrested the driver.
Deputies Ryan Skelton and Rusty Taylor are heading the investigation.
"This is the first homicide [in Brewster County] since I took office in 2001," Sheriff Dodson said.
The last homicide in Alpine occurred in April 1997, according to the Alpine Police Department.
That was when an elderly man died in an arson fire. Before that, the last reported homicide in Alpine was in the early 1990s.
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