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Search for Grand Forks attempted murder suspect stretches to southern border

Omar Martinez, 25, is wanted for the attempted murder of his girlfriend's former boyfriend.

omarmartinezwanted
The wanted poster put out by Grand Forks police.
Contributed

GRAND FORKS — The Grand Forks Police Department is expanding their search to the Mexican border for a man they say tried to kill his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.

Omar Martinez, 25, is wanted for attempted murder and reckless endangerment. Police say he shot at the victim's car on Demers Avenue by the Columbia Road overpass around 9 a.m. Sunday morning in Grand Forks.

The bullet hit the driver's seat, but the driver was not hit. The victim's son was in the car.

The boy's mother was in Martinez's car at the time. She is not believed to have been involved.

About seven hours earlier, Martinez was arrested for disorderly conduct after allegedly kicking the victim's car outside of Joe Black's Bar & Grill downtown and then kicking in the victim's door at his house.

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He bailed out just before the shooting.

The victim said he does not know why Martinez is after him.

Police said their search for Martinez now stretches to the southern border, especially Texas where he is originally from.

"With this being an attempted murder investigation, we want to make sure we exhaust our efforts to try and locate him before he does abscond from the area or anything additional does transpire," said Grand Forks police lieutenant Jeremy Moe.

While this was a targeted incident, police say Martinez should be considered a potential threat to public safety.

Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years. He was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia and attended college at Lyndon State College in northern Vermont, where he was recognized twice nationally, including first place, by the National Academy for Arts and Science for television production. Matt enjoys being a voice for the little guy. He focuses on crimes and courts and investigative stories. Just as often, he shares tear-jerking stories and stories of accomplishment. Matt enjoys traveling to small towns across North Dakota and Minnesota to share their stories. He can be reached at mhenson@wday.com and at 610-639-9215. When he's not at work (rare) Matt resides in Moorhead and enjoys spending time with his daughter, golfing and attending Bison and Sioux games.
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