UPDATED: Four Suspects Held in Shooting of Trucker

By Bill Miller, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Jan. 12–Four suspects have been arrested in the shotgun slaying late Thursday of truck driver who was parked at a hotel in Grand Prairie, police said Friday.

The arrests, which were announced at 12:30 p.m. Friday, came as the result of a tip, said Det. John Brimmer, police spokesman said. He said police weren’t releasing names yet.

“The investigation continues,” he said.

Cavit Sevenler, 37, of Plano was fatally shot at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday as he sat in the cab of his tractor-trailer rig parked at a Grand Prairie hotel, police said.

He was hit in the chest by what appeared to be a shotgun blast as he sat in a rig at the Best Value Inn & Suites, 1108 N. Texas 360, Brimmer said.

A friend of Sevenler, who had been sleeping in the back of the cab, flagged down officers after the shooting.

“The witness indicated that a black male came up to the cab asking to borrow a cellphone, and the driver told him no,” Brimmer said. “A short time later, the witness heard loud talking, like an argument, and the gunshot.”

The man said he “observed three black male suspects run to a white Ford Taurus and flee the scene,” Brimmer said.

Sevenler died immediately, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Investigators speculate that the men might have been trying to steal the tractor-trailer, Brimmer said. Two other rigs were hijacked recently in the Metroplex.

Sevenler and his friend were working for a moving company and had stopped at the hotel to rest before continuing their trip, Brimmer said.

Police were also viewing videotape from the parking lot cameras, Brimmer said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 972-988-TIPS (8477) or Detective Heath Wester at 972-237-8911, Brimmer said.

——

Bill Miller, (817) 390-7684

wmiller@star-telegram.com

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

KualaLumpur:1708,