Man beheaded in machete attack at motel, witness says; suspect in police custody

WARNING: A suspect has been charged with capital murder after allegedly beheading his boss, the manager of a Texas motel, with a machete.

DALLAS, Texas (KTVT)-- Dallas police responded to a deadly incident at a motel east of Downtown Wednesday morning.

Numerous police units and paramedics responded to the Downtown Suites on Samuell Boulevard around 9:30 a.m.

The Dallas Police Department said a suspect cut the victim, identified as 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah, “with an edged weapon several times,” and paramedics pronounced the victim dead at the scene.

Police said a suspect, Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, is in custody and charged with capital murder. In addition to that charge, he has an immigration hold for allegedly being in the U.S. without authorization, according to Dallas County Jail records.

A witness told CBS News Texas reporter Briseida Holguin that Nagamallaiah and Cobos-Martinez were both employees of the motel. The witness said the suspect chased the victim with a machete, hit him multiple times and then cut off his head.

Video from the CBS News Texas Chopper showed a body and a trail of blood outside of a room on the motel’s ground floor.

Steven Rosenbaum, KTVT