BEEVILLE, Texas — Bee County could soon be getting a new sheriff.
For eight years, Alden Southmayd has come out on top in elections but a surprising upset found Randy Aguirre winning Tuesday's runoff election by a large margin.
Aguirre took more than 62 percent of the vote.
You may remember Aguirre as one of the lead investigators in the Kristene Chapa/Mollie Olguin shooting in Portland that ended in David Strickland being convicted in the case.
He said it was the case he will remember most from his Texas Ranger career.
"Old timers that were in the Rangers always said that there'll be one case that you work that you'll always remember," Aguirre said. "And that was the case for me."
Aguirre started at the McConnell prison in 1994 and then became a Texas Ranger.
It brought closure to the family and also Kristene Chapa because I'm sure if we wouldn't have been able to track down that guy she would have always been worried that maybe something could happen to her," he said.
Aguirre says his experience and education led to his election victory in this week's runoff and the biggest challenge facing Bee County is the loss of DPS troopers who have been reassigned to the Texas-Mexico border.
"I feel like we have to take it upon ourselves as a sheriff's department to pick up their slack and get out there and work the roads, do interdiction for smuggling, human smuggling," he said.
Aguirre who has a wife and two children says he also wants smaller communities to feel better protected.
"Pawnee, Skidmore, Tynan, Blanconia, places that are on the outskirts of Beeville that we can patrol and they can see us actively driving around and they feel comfortable that hey, there's a sheriff deputy working today out here," he said.
The republican nominee for sheriff also wants a progressive approach taken by deputies and hopes to have a mental health officer.
"We don't have to tase them or, heaven forbid, have to use deadly force," Aguirre said.
Since there is no democrat to run against him in November, Aguirre will become the sheriff at the end of the year.
