Dallas police are investigating a brutal and shocking homicide that occurred at a motel east of downtown on Wednesday morning, involving a fatal attack with an edged weapon that witnesses described as a beheading. The incident, which took place at the Downtown Suites on Samuell Boulevard around 9:30 a.m., prompted a massive response from numerous police units and paramedics. Upon arrival, first responders discovered a gruesome scene: a victim later identified as 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah had suffered multiple wounds from an edged weapon and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
According to the Dallas Police Department, the suspect, 37-year-old Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, was taken into custody and has been charged with capital murder, a designation reserved for the most severe homicides under Texas law, such as those involving multiple victims, the killing of a police officer, or murder committed during another felony like robbery or kidnapping. Capital murder charges can carry the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole. A witness at the scene provided harrowing details to CBS News Texas reporter Briseida Holguin, stating that both Nagamallaiah and Cobos-Martinez were employees of the motel. The witness reported that the suspect chased the victim with a machete, struck him multiple times, and then decapitated him.
Video footage from the CBS News Texas helicopter showed a body and a significant trail of blood outside a ground-floor room of the motel, corroborating the violent nature of the attack. While police initially did not release the identities of those involved, subsequent updates confirmed the victim as Nagamallaiah and the suspect as Cobos-Martinez. The motel, located in an area east of downtown Dallas, is part of a neighborhood that has seen varied levels of crime over the years, though incidents of this extreme violence are rare. The investigation is ongoing as authorities work to determine a motive and gather further evidence.