Photos of Tony Sanchez, taken from his Facebook page
Dallas Police are investigating the murder of Tony Sanchez, a 51-year-old man found dead Saturday, July 11, in his apartment at the Budget Suites on North Walton Walker Freeway at Singleton Boulevard.
Roger Herrera, attorney and one-time Dallas mayoral candidate, said today (Monday, July 13) that Sanchez was a gay man who had been an AIDS activist and LGBT community activist.
According to information released by police, officers responded to the Budget Suites at about 2:13 p.m. Saturday after a friend of Sanchez’s, unable to reach him by phone, went to his apartment and found him dead. Homicide detectives responding to the scene determined that Sanchez “died as a result of homicidal violence.”
Police have no information on a potential suspect, according to reports, and the investigation is ongoing. Dallas Voice has requested more information and will update this post as information becomes available.
Herrera said Monday that he first met Sanchez in 1993 and that the two had become close friends over the years. “In fact, when I ran for mayor in 2007, he put all my campaign signs together for me,” Herrera said.
The attorney said Sanchez had “worked at Hunky’s for a while, way back when,” and that he had been involved with Oak Lawn Community Services, an AIDS services organization. He said Sanchez usually worked in customer service positions with call centers and “I believe that one of his temporary jobs had recently turned into a permanent position.”
Herrera said he hadn’t seen Sanchez “in a while,” and that he had sent his friend a text around noon on Saturday to “see about getting together for dinner or something. But he never responded.” The attorney said he got a call from a mutual friend about 2:30 p.m. telling him that Sanchez had been found dead in his apartment, “but I didn’t know that he had been murdered until I saw the news reports about it later on.”
