ROSWELL, Ga. — A man said he was stunned to learn the man accused of killing Roswell Police Ofc. Jeremy Labonte was the same person he called authorities on nearly a year ago.
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Vicente Basilio Castillo shared footage from his Ring doorbell camera that captured his encounter with Edward Espinoza. It happened 10 months before police said Espinoza shot and killed Labonte outside a pickleball club Friday.
“It’s really heartbreaking for this family,” Castillo said Monday. “My heart goes to them.”
He told Channel 2′s Michael Seiden that Espinoza showed up to his front door while smoking drugs and harassed him and his wife before things got physical.
The video shows Castillo as he confronted Espinoza outside his apartment. The two exchanged words but what you don’t see on camera is the moment Espinoza got physical.
“I’m trying to call 911, and out of nowhere, he just flicks my nipple,” he said.
Castillo recounted how he chased after Espinoza and held him down until police arrived.
“He takes off running again, So then I chase him and I trip him,” he said. “I have him a stranglehold, and I tell him, ‘If you don’t stop, if you don’t calm down, it’s going to get much worse.’”
Police eventually arrested and charged Espinoza with multiple misdemeanors. Castillo says he could have never imagined that the same person could now be charged with such a heinous crime.
Espinoza has spent three nights behind bars since his capture. A judge denied him bond on Monday morning.
Court records showed that Espinoza lived in an apartment less than a mile from the scene of the shooting. It is also the same place where police arrested him in 2021, saying he fired a rifle out of a window.
He was convicted of the crime in 2023 and sentenced to 12 months of probation and mental health treatment.
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