Police say they arrested the suspect in the fatal attack at the Downtown Suites motel about a block away.
DALLAS — A person was beheaded at a Dallas motel on Wednesday morning, and a suspect is in custody, police say. Both have now been identified.
Police identified the victim as 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah, and the suspect as 37-year-old Yordanis Cobos-Martinez.
Cobos-Martinez has been charged with capital murder in connection with the killing. Jail records show him listed as an immigrant.
A large presence of police vehicles was observed by WFAA crews at the Downtown Suites motel located on the 3400 block of Samuell Boulevard, near Interstate 30 and Tenison golf course in East Dallas. The motel’s entrance is cordoned off with crime scene tape.
Officials reported they responded to a stabbing incident at approximately 9:30 a.m., discovering an individual had been repeatedly attacked with a sharp weapon. Dallas Fire-Rescue also arrived on the scene, where the victim was pronounced deceased.
Officials say the suspect is charged with capital murder, according to an arrest affidavit from the Dallas Police Department
The affidavit details the events that led to the gruesome scene.
The affidavit details that a witness recounted she and Cobos-Martinez were in the midst of cleaning a motel room when the victim, Nagamallaiah, appeared and instructed Cobos-Martinez not to use a malfunctioning washing machine.
The witness relayed to authorities that Cobos-Martinez became agitated because the victim addressed her as an interpreter instead of speaking directly to him, as per the affidavit.
Surveillance footage, according to the affidavit, captured Cobos-Martinez stepping out of the room, retrieving a machete, and launching an attack on Nagamallaiah, who tried to flee toward the front office.
The affidavit also notes that during the attack, Cobos-Martinez stopped to search Nagamallaiah’s pockets and took various belongings. The attacker also repeatedly repelled attempts by the victim’s wife and son to halt the assault.
Stephanie Elliott said she witnessed the attack and told WFAA that the suspect began stabbing the person with a machete after an argument on the motel property, and the victim tried to run away but fell, and the suspect continued stabbing.
“He just kept hitting him and hitting until he decapitated him,” Elliott said. “I could not believe that anybody would do another human being that way.”
Audio from Broadcastify and police incident detail reports also describe a chase and a suspect armed with a machete “cutting someone’s head off.”
Dallas Police Executive Assistant Chief Terrence Rhodes said during a press conference that officers patrolling the area responded to take the suspect into custody.
“Our officers were proactively patrolling the area and responded quickly to take the violent criminal into custody,” said Rhodes. “Even though [the suspect] was armed with a bladed weapon, the officers showed tremendous restraint and used minimal force to apprehend him. This violent crime will not go unpunished and our department will thoroughly investigate and bring charges against the suspect.”
Police also responded to another scene about a block away where the suspect was arrested, officials tell WFAA.
