An alleged mass murderer is back in Surry County after his capture early Monday in Virginia, with authorities still trying to pin down the circumstances of the shooting that left four men dead and shocked the community.

“We’re still in the initial phases,” Mount Airy Police Chief Dale Watson said of the investigation Monday while surrounded by reporters during a late-afternoon press conference at the city police station.

Watson said that based on interviews so far with numerous witnesses and family members regarding the fatal shooting, “there’s a lot of speculation” about what caused a dispute that culminated in the incident on Worth Street just outside Wood’s TV Inc.

Marcos Chavez Gonzalez, 29, a convicted kidnapper, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the case. He was being held without bond after waiving extradition from Henry County, Va.

The police chief was asked during the press conference about rumors of the incident being a “contract killing,” or whether it was gang- or drug-related, but he would not confirm any of those reports. Watson indicated that all possibilities are being explored at this point in the probe, which involves every member of his department’s Criminal Investigation Division.

Watson said no conspiracy or similar charges had been issued against Gonzalez or anyone else at this time, which would coincide with a murder-for-hire plot.

Meanwhile, one source close to three of the victims says the dispute involved a problem with a woman, while another said Monday that the shootings stemmed from a minor disagreement that got out of hand.

“I know this was a misunderstanding,” said Juan Rivas, who said he used to work with one of the victims. He explained that the misunderstanding resulted in a fight in which one thing led to another, with the shootings subsequently occurring.

Victims Identified

Also Monday, city police named the four men who were fatally shot Sunday about 2:15 p.m. outside the TV and appliance store at 729 Worth St.

They include Victor Alfonso Martinez-Jimemiz, 22; Javier Manuel Martinez, 21; Juan Manuel Martinez, 26; and Marcos Oviedo Aguilar, 22.

The Martinezes are brothers, police said, and Martinez-Jimemiz is their cousin. Aguilar was a mutual friend. Everyone but Aguilar lived in the Mount Airy area, and he resided in Surry County, although officers did not supply exact addresses for any of the men.

Two of the victims died at the scene and the others at Northern Hospital of Surry County nearby.

Watson said Monday it is believed that a high-powered assault rifle was used in the shootings, but the weapon had not been recovered. There were reports that about 16 rounds were fired Sunday afternoon.

Authorities identified Gonzalez early on as the alleged shooter and alerted authorities in Virginia and other states to be on the lookout for him.

Gonzalez subsequently was arrested just before 4 a.m. Monday at a Super 8 motel on U.S. 220 in Martinsville, Va., after officers surrounded the establishment. He surrendered without incident, according to Watson, and was returned to the Mount Airy Police Department about 2:30 p.m. Monday.

The police chief said Gonzalez was interviewed in Virginia Monday morning, but declined to say whether he had confessed to the shootings.

Gonzalez has a criminal record in North Carolina, according to state prison officials. It includes convictions of second-degree kidnapping of a minor, resisting an officer, second-degree trespassing and operating a vehicle without a license.

He has been imprisoned in North Carolina two separate times within the past nine years, with the most recent sentence ending in January 2007.

Although some of those involved in the shootings reportedly lived in the Worth Street area, it is unclear why it happened outside the TV store. “We don’t know at this point why that location was chosen,” Watson said.

“At this point, we just know that they were fired upon,” the police chief added regarding the victims. Watson had said earlier there were roughly a dozen witnesses to the shooting, some of whom just happened to be in the area, but others who knew the victims and might have been there with Gonzalez and those who were shot.

Capt. Alan Freeman said that the five murders in Mount Airy this year — including those Sunday and the stabbing of a man in July — are more than the city incurred in the previous eight years combined.

Watson said city officers have been assisted in the case by the Surry County Sheriff’s Office and State Bureau of Investigation.

Somber Scene

It was somewhat business as usual Monday afternoon at both Wood’s TV and another site even closer to the shootings, Chilton Insurance Group Inc. at 731 Worth St.

One glaring difference, however, was the steady stream of vehicles along Worth Street containing people riding by to glimpse the crime scene.

Officials of both businesses indicated that the incident definitely had affected their mindset for the day.

The shootings happened directly outside the insurance firm. “One body was right above my window,” Chilton said. The insurance company owner said he had to “get over the initial shock of seeing my place on TV” after reporters flocked to the scene, then had to absorb the human tragedy of the event.

Looking at a series of orange markings in the parking lot where shell casings were recovered, Chilton added that the scene “was a little bit surreal.” Ironically, Chilton said he had relocated his office to Worth Street in July 2008, thinking it would be quieter than his previous site on Edgewood Drive.

“I don’t know why it happened here,” he said Monday afternoon.

Nearby, a small shrine of flowers and candles was set up, which caught fire about 8:45 p.m. Monday, apparently accidentally.

Tycho Wood Jr., a co-owner of Wood’s TV Inc., said he was sad for the families of the victims, and lamented the notion that a crime normally associated with cities such as Miami had occurred in “Mayberry.”

Both Wood and police say that had the incident happened on a busy weekday instead of a Sunday, more victims could have been caught up in the hail of gunfire.

Marty Galloway, who lives on Worth Street near the shooting scene, said he was visiting his elderly grandmother, Naomi Galloway, who resides right across the street from the site, on Sunday afternoon.

“I heard the shots,” Galloway said.

Mrs. Galloway looked out her window and saw the bodies in the parking lot. “My grandmother, she was a little bit shaken up,” her grandson said.

“It’s sad,” Galloway added of the incident. “Times are just getting bad everywhere.”

“It’s the society we live in,” Chilton said in discussing the incident that has caused the city to make national headlines in a negative way. “I hate the impact on Mount Airy.”

However, Wood said he hoped that people will regard the shootings as an isolated incident that doesn’t detract from the overall quality of life this community offers.

“Mount Airy’s still a great town,” he said.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.