A San Diego County man has been charged with murder after a confrontation in Fallbrook that left one landscaper dead and another hospitalized, according to authorities and NBC News.
Michael Anthony Burke, 70, of Fallbrook was arrested Monday after allegedly firing his shotgun into a vehicle and killing Martin Lucas Esteban, an immigrant from Guatemala who was working on a nearby property, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
The shooting occurred around 8 p.m. Monday on East Mission Road in Fallbrook, about 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Authorities responded to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon and found two men suffering from gunshot wounds. Esteban was pronounced dead at the scene.
The incident occurred after an argument between the three men, the Sheriff’s Department said.
Burke was charged with murder, attempted murder and firing into an inhabited vehicle, according to a criminal complaint filed with San Diego County Superior Court obtained by NBC News.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday, NBC reported. Burke was being held in the Vista Detention Facility without bail on Friday, according to jail records.
In a cellphone video of the incident verified by NBC, a man pointed his gun through the window of a truck with two men inside.
“You wanna die today? I will kill you right now,” the man with the gun can be heard saying.
One of the men inside the truck grabbed the barrel of the gun and a struggle followed before the weapon went off, according to the video.
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