A Texas man, John Martin Dixon, has been arrested more than a month after allegedly shooting a teen, Emmanuel Menchaca, who was holding a backyard funeral for his pet guinea pig in Houston. On July 17, 2025, Menchaca, 18, was reportedly burying his guinea pig when an argument with his neighbor, Dixon, 46, broke out, Fox 26 Houston reported at the time. The reason for the disagreement is still unclear.
Dixon allegedly shot Menchaca in front of his younger brother; the teen spent more than two weeks in the hospital for his injuries, ABC 13 reported. Police seized Dixon’s gun that night and interviewed his father. The next day, Menchaca identified Dixon as the alleged gunman in a photo lineup.
Although charges were filed against Dixon on August 8, he failed to appear for an August 11 court hearing. Dixon even made it on Texas’ Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, with a $3,000 reward for his arrest. Ultimately, Dixon was arrested on August 25 and charged with two counts of aggravated assault.
“I’m not satisfied with the charges. I would’ve preferred a higher charge,” Emmanuel’s mother, Andrea Menchaca, told ABC 13. “Let’s not forget my son was in the hospital for 17 days in the ICU.”
Andrea added, “My children should’ve never gone through what they did. We’re here today to seek justice. Why did this happen?”
A GoFundMe account was set up to help the family with expenses, and it’s already exceeded its goal.
Investigators are still trying to find a motive for the attack. “We may never know the motive behind the crime but you’re always striving to get that so we’re looking at that and if we’re able to determine what it is then potentially charges can be upgraded,” Harris County District Attorney Sam Teare told the outlet.
“The process while incredibly frustrating to survivors and their families always it worked here. We were able to make sure we had the strongest case we were able to have before we moved forward,” Teare continued. “We needed to ensure we had ballistics because eyewitness testimony is very important and wonderful but you always want to be able to cohobate it with physical evidence… we were able to do that in early August. The law enforcement agency was.”
Currently, Dixon is being held at the Harris County jail; his next court date is in October.
