Tejano singer Selena killed in a Corpus motel Suspect ends standoff with police

Click through the slideshow to see how the death of Selena was covered 25 years ago. Corpus Christi police SWAT team members wait behind barricades in the rain during negotiations with Yolanda Saldivar March 31, 1995. Saldivar is in a red vehicle barely visible behind the large truck at right. less Click through the slideshow to see how the death of Selena was covered 25 years ago. Corpus Christi police SWAT team members wait behind barricades in the rain during negotiations with Yolanda Saldivar March ... more Photo: BOB OWEN, File Photo Photo: BOB OWEN, File Photo Image 1 of / 144 Caption Close Tejano singer Selena killed in a Corpus motel 1 / 144 Back to Gallery

Editor's note: This article originally appeared in the San Antonio Express-News on April 1, 1995, one day after Selena's death.

Selena Quintanilla Perez the sexy, self, made Tejano superstar known to millions of adoring fans simply as Selena, was shot and killed Friday afternoon in a motel in her seaside hometown.

The Grammy-winning star died at 1:05 p.m. at Memorial Medical Center, two weeks shy of her 24th birthday. She had been shot twice an hour earlier, shortly before noon. A suspect in the shooting, Yolanda Saldivar, of San Antonio, kept police at bay for more than nine hours after the attack, sitting and holding a pistol in a red pickup parked outside the motel.

When Saldivar, a 32-year-old former employee of Selena, surrendered at 9:34 p.m., onlookers cheered as police led her away.

"She did seem to have all of her faculties together," Police Chief Henry Garrett said. "She demanded nothing. She finally just gave up."

Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, said there were questions about money management by Saldivar.

"My daughter, Selena, was killed this morning by a disgruntled employee," he said. "She started out as the president of the fan club, and then she was hired to oversee boutiques. "There were discrepancies with the fan club and they resulted in the shooting of Selena."

Saldivar had been staying at the Days Inn and called Selena earlier in the day, a source with the Corpus Christi Police Department said.

The shooting occurred when they returned to the motel and a discussion apparently followed about missing funds. During the standoff that followed the shooting, Saldivar sat in the motel parking lot at Navigation Street and Interstate 37. She kept police at bay by threatening to kill herself.

"She's got a pistol to her head. We're negotiating with her (to surrender)," Assistant Corpus Christi Police Chief Ken Bung said.

"When we arrived we found Selena shot in the lobby of the hotel," he said.



She was shot once in the back outside the motel and staggered inside.



"We feel like it was a job-related misunderstanding." Bung said. "We heard that she (the suspect) was dismissed today."



Earlier, during the stalemate, police declined to comment on possible motives for the shooting or the events that had led to it, noting that the suspect could monitor developments over the truck radio.



Bung said a member of the police negotiations team had handed the woman a telephone to allow her to talk to officers.



Ruben DeLeon, catering manager for the motel, said he was in the lobby when the mortally wounded Selena staggered through the door and collapsed on the floor. She was shot in the right shoulder.



"I was just standing there when I saw her come in and stumble right in front of me. It was terrible," said DeLeon, who then abruptly broke off the interview, saying: "I can't talk about it now. I'm just too upset."



With traffic on Navigation and the access road diverted, hundreds of anxious onlookers stood behind police barriers.



"She was very young, and she had a very promising career," said James Butcher, 23, who arrived several hours after the shooting.



"I'm not really a Tejano music fan, but I listened to her music because It speaks to me," he said.



Another bystander, Martin Figueroa, 29, said he had come as soon as he heard news of the situation.



"When I heard about the stakeout here, I drove straight over to make sure the cops got her," he said of the shooting suspect."



Across town on Bloomington Street, outside the Quintanilla family home, Nueces County sheriff's deputies directed a steady stream of traffic while distraught fans Pinned notes to the chain-link fence In front.



"From Nancy R. I miss you Selena. I loved you so much" read one.



A 14-year-old neighbor, Erica Robles, asked simply: "Why did this have to happen?"



Robles said she would occasionally help Selena with yard work earning $10 for an hour or so of work. Selena was known in the working class neighborhood for her kindness to children, never hesitating to give them autographs or concert tickets.



"Sometimes she'd let us in the house," Robles said.



A cousin, Stephanie Robles, also 14, said Selena was a role model.



"Kids looked up to her. She was good at something," Stephanie said. "As famous as she was, I thought she was going to be a person who wasn't down to earth. When she'd be outside, and we would pass by she would speak," said Yvonne Pena, who lives about two blocks away.



"She was really funny. She was a jokester," Pena said.



As Friday afternoon wore on news of Selena's shooting and death spread like electricity among her fans and followers. The office of EMI Latin, Selena's record label, was besieged by telephone calls. By 2 p.m., Tejano stations KRIO-FM and KXTN-FM in San Antonio had announced the news and had begun playing a marathon set of Selena's music.



Late in the afternoon, record stores in San Antonio reported crowds filing in looking for Selena's records.



Calls came into the newspaper from as far away as Chicago, Detroit, Los Angela and even Mexico City.



Recording Industry types, artists and even fans called, asking: "Is it true? Is Selena dead?"

At the time of her death, the Grammy winning singer was idolized by fans in the United States, where she was poised to make the quantum leap from Tejano to pop stardom.



Her "Selena Live" album won a Grammy last year for the best-selling Mexican-American album, and she was nominated for a Grammy this year for the song "Amor Prohibido."



She was equally popular in Mexico, where she appeared on variety shows like "Siempre en Domingo" and popular soap operas such as "Dos Mujeres, Un Camino," and drew crowds normally reserved for international rock stars.



Her biggest hit, "Amur Prohibido," sold more than 400,000 copies in both the United States and abroad.



Born April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, a gritty chemical plant town on the Brazos south of Houston, Selena moved with her family to a working-class Corpus Christi neighborhood known as Molina as a child.



And while she traveled far and almost continuously as a musician, at her death, she and her husband, band member, Chris Perez, still lived in Corpus Christi, next door to her parents' home.



The youngest child of musician Abraham Quintanilla Jr., Selena launched her musical career at age 10 as lead singer for the family group, Selena y los Dinos. Brother Abraham played bass and sister Suzette drums.



For years, the band, closely managed by her father, played weddings, quinceaneras and roadhouse dance halls throughout South Texas, sometimes having to play for the gas money to make it back home.



Selena earned her high school diploma on the road, taking correspondence courses from a school in Chicago.

It was in 1989, at the Tejano Music Awards ceremony in San Antonio, that Selena y los Dinos got their break. There they were spotted and signed by a representative of EMI Records.



For many of her fans, Selena the singer also was a fashion idol — and the flashy, often provocative outfits she wore on stage got almost as much comment from the media as her music.



Selena often said that she was a "frustrated fashion designer" and that if she hadn't gone into music, she would have pursued a design career.



Modeling, however, was a different story.



"I'm always scared to death when I walk down the runway," she confided in a December interview. "I mean, it's like what if I trip, stumble or something? So I always walk just as fast as I can to get it over with. It's completely different when I'm singing – I'm never nervous then."



A little over a year ago, with the help of San Antonio native Martin Gomez, she finally opened a design house in Corpus Christi and also opened boutiques there and in San Antonio to sell the styles. The label read "Designed by Martin Gomez Exclusively for Selena."



Gomez, an Incarnate Word College design program graduate, was the artistic force and handled most of the production and creative details while the star was on the road. But Selena always was deeply involved in the creation of her collection, he said.



Gomez and Selena parted company a few months ago when he decided to return to a career in fashion retailing, but the Tejano star remained a friend and an important part of his life.

When word of her death reached Gomez on Friday, he was shaken.



"This is crushing," he said, crying on the phone after hearing the news. "This is such a terrible loss. Selena was a beautiful person."



One of the approximately 300 on lookers who remained outside the Days Inn was Handy Caballero, 27, who said he was a former keyboard player with the Houston band La Mafia, for which Selena had often opened years ago.



Caballero, owner of Tex-Appeal, a Corpus Christi music production company, said he had known Selena since 1986 and at one point dated her.



"She did more work for the industry than anyone has ever done in the Tejano market," he said.

Caballero said he admired Selena because despite her great success her personality did not change.