Police arrested a suspect reportedly involved in Dane County’s first homicide of the year early Wednesday morning.
According to a Madison Police Department report, Edgar Salinas-Leal, 24, suspected of killing Darrell Ballweg, 38, was found at a vacant apartment in the 5800 block of Raymond Road at 3:50 a.m. MPD has been searching for Salinas-Leal for four days.
MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said a dispute occurred between Salinas-Leal and Ballweg last Friday night outside their residence. DeSpain said the residence is shared by the suspect, the victim, both of their wives and Salinas-Leal’s 7-month-old daughter.
The police report said results of an autopsy confirmed that Ballweg’s death was caused by “homicidal firearm violence.”
DeSpain said Salinas-Leal’s wife and daughter were found safely shortly before midnight last Monday but did not know if she faced charges of aiding her husband.
“At this point, we’re not disclosing what information led us to the suspect,” DeSpain said. “We were making it very uncomfortable for those associated with him and put a lot of our resources into finding him.”
DeSpain said members of the SWAT team and other Madison police personnel helped locate Salinas-Leal and that the suspect was arrested without incident. DeSpain could not confirm whether Salinas-Leal was armed at the time of his arrest.
According to DeSpain, Salinas-Leal’s vehicle was found unoccupied Tuesday morning in a parking lot near High-Crossing Boulevard.
DeSpain said the suspect had connections to both Texas and Madison, leading to suspicions that he may have attempted to flee the state. However, after the first 12 hours of the investigation, DeSpain said the police developed information that led them to believe Salinas-Leal was still located in the greater Madison area.
“We’re just happy that he’s in custody and off the street, and we did have some reason for concern for his wife and child, not knowing if they left voluntarily or by force,” DeSpain said. “In a general sense, there’s always a risk to the community when someone’s on the run who has committed a homicide.”
