Former girlfriend of Nestor Hernandez, Methodist Hospital shooter, speaks to WFAA

On Oct. 21, 2022, at Methodist Hospital, Selena Villatoro gave birth to a baby boy. The baby’s father, Nestor Hernandez, was there.

“When my water broke, he’s the one that took me over there and he stayed,” said Villatoro.

At the time, Hernandez was on parole for aggravated robbery and was wearing an ankle monitor. 

He initially wasn’t supposed to be at the hospital but got permission from his parole officer to visit Villatoro and his newborn son the next day.

Villatoro said he texted before he left the house around 7 in the morning. 

“He was texting good at first. Like when he woke up. He was, like, asking me how’s the baby,” said Villatoro.

Villatoro says he didn’t show up until just before 11 a.m. and appeared to be drunk. Surveillance video of him inside the hospital showed him holding a beer.

“I seen he was mad, you know because he had a beer in his hand. Like, who would come into the hospital with a beer?” said Villatoro.

She said he appeared drunk. Villatoro said he began calling his relatives. 

“He called them like to tell them goodbye. Like ‘I love you.’ Like ‘y’all be good and stay safe.’ He was saying his goodbyes.”

She said he would get mean and jealous when he was drunk. He began accusing her of having another man in the room before he got there. 

”He said ‘you got me messed up’ and he’s like, ‘I’m not dumb. I told you to stop playing with me.’ He’s like, ‘we are going to die today.’” 

Villatoro said she was holding the baby in her arms, terrified he would kill them and anyone who walked through the door. 

“He was like, ‘press the button, press the button’ and I was like, ‘no, you are trippin” and I had the baby… He hit me on this side of the head and I thought he was going to hit the baby and he just kept hitting me,” said Villatoro.

She said that’s when Jacqueline Pokuaa, a hospital caretaker, walked in. 

“She came in and she had some papers. He got up and he went around her and he just shot her and I was, like, trying to make eyes with her, looking at her trying. I don’t even know what I was trying to do. He shot her and that’s when it all happened,” said Villatoro. 

Surveillance video released from the hospital shows what happens next.

Police said Hernandez walked to the door and shot nurse Annette Flowers.  

A Methodist police officer, Sgt. Robert Rangel, fired his weapon shooting Hernandez in the leg. 

“I have a man with a gun,” Rangel said. 

Villatoro said that’s when Hernandez came back into the room and reloaded. 

“He went into his back pocket. It was like a little box of bullets and he started reloading and he kept saying ‘you see, you thought this was a game. We are going to die today, enjoy your time with your baby’ like we are going to die.” 

Villatoro said terrified, she tried to calm Hernandez down, who now had the gun pointed at her. 

“He had the gun and he was pointing like he was going to kill me and kill himself,” she said. 

Officers called for Hernandez to surrender but Villatoro thought they were also talking to her.  

“I didn’t want to leave my baby. I just didn’t want to leave my baby. I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want to die in front of my baby,” said Villatoro.

In the video, you can hear Villatoro screaming and begging for officers not to shoot Hernandez.   

“Listen to me, please let him outside. Please that’s all I’m asking.” 

She said she was trying to convince Hernandez to surrender but he kept hitting her while she held the baby. 

“He was so close and he could have hit him and he could have died and it was crazy. I don’t know why he did it and I kept asking him ‘why did you do this? What was the reason?'” said Villatoro. 

Villatoro said eventually, Hernandez, who was shot, fell over and dropped the gun. 

“I jumped up and got the gun. The officers were talking to us and telling him to come outside and I’m like ‘I got the gun. I’m going to throw it outside,’ and I just threw the gun,” said Villatoro. 

Dallas Police officers, who had been called in to assist, took Hernandez into custody.  

Villatoro said thinking back on that day has been difficult, especially knowing two innocent women lost their lives.  

“I just want to tell them, I am sorry for their loss,” she said. 

Villatoro said she has a lot of regrets, like staying with Hernandez after the both of them went to prison at the same time for robbing a woman in 2015. 

She said after they were both released, she went back to him even though she knew he was controlling, angry and drank too much. 

“I should have left him when I seen he was getting out of control with his drinking,” said Villatoro. 

Villatoro said she has not spoken to him since that tragic day and has no desire to ever talk to him again.   

Instead, she is trying to focus on getting her son back. 

Child Protective Services took the baby and placed him in foster care. Villatoro said she does get to see him every day but hates she can’t take of him or buy him the things he needs. 

Villatoro said she never imagined Hernandez would do something like this and said she wishes she could have stopped him. 

Hernandez was indicted on capital murder charges in December for the deaths of Pokuaa and Flowers. 

Controversy has surrounded Hernandez’s case, due to him being out on parole for a violent aggravated robbery. Hernandez had cut off his ankle monitor earlier in 2022, violating his parole conditions for a second time. He was released after spending 100 days in custody at the order of the state parole board, law enforcement sources told WFAA. 

Hernandez had six ankle monitor violations, according to a report from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Board of Pardons & Paroles. 

Top political leaders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have called for investigations into the state’s parolee monitoring program. 

When WFAA investigated the effectiveness of ankle monitors in parole, we learned that Hernandez didn’t have a GPS monitor, but instead, a curfew monitor. 

“I’ve said it before ankle monitors do not work on violent criminals,” Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said to WFAA. “They do not work.”

State Representative Rafael Anchia said he plans to introduce a bill into the legislative session that would criminalize cutting off an ankle monitor and revoke a person’s parole when they cut off their monitor. 

Hernandez is currently in the Dallas County jail in lieu of a $3 million bond. 

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