Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Daniella Silva 
 
 Prosecutors in Texas will seek the death penalty against a U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of killing four women after a grand jury returned a capital murder indictment on Wednesday. 
 
 The agent, Juan David Ortiz, is suspected in the killings of four women and the kidnapping of a fifth in rural Texas, Webb County District Attorney Isidro R. Alaniz said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. Ortiz is being held on a $2.5 million bond. 
 
 Ortiz, 35, was indicted on one count of capital murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful restraint and evading arrest, the district attorney's office said in a statement. An arraignment hearing is pending. 
 
 The grand jury upgraded the charge against Ortiz, who had faced four counts of murder. 
 
 Juan David Ortiz Image: Juan David Ortiz / Webb County 
 
 In describing why the indictment was for just one capital murder charge instead of four murder charges, Alaniz said a person "commits capital murder if the person intentionally or knowingly causes the death of more than one individual during different criminal transactions but pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct." 
 
 “The scheme in this case from Ortiz’s own words was to clean up the streets of Laredo by targeting this community of individuals who he perceived to be disposable, that no one would miss and that he did not give value to,” he said. 
 
 Alaniz said the victims all had issues with drug use or were involved with sex work. 
 
 Ortiz is accused of picking up his victims in his truck on or near San Bernardo Avenue before shooting and killing them over the span of two weeks in September. 
 
 Alaniz said prosecutors were seeking the death penalty because of the “horrific nature of the murders, his complete disregard for human life, his vigilante mentality." 
 
 "He violated his oath to his country and to his agency," he said. 
 
 "Ortiz preyed on the weak, the sick, the vulnerable,” he added. “San Bernardo was his hunting ground." 
 
 Ortiz, who had been with Border Patrol for 10 years and is a Navy veteran, was arrested after a woman he allegedly tried to kidnap escaped from his pickup truck and sought help from police in September. 
 
 The woman's story prompted an investigation that led authorities to believe Ortiz was responsible for four killings within the span of about two weeks. 
 
 Prosecutors say Ortiz has confessed to the killings. 
 
 The victims have been identified by authorities as Melissa Ramirez, 29, who police say was killed on Sept. 3; Claudine Ann Luera, 42, who police say was killed on Sept. 6; Guiselda Alicia Hernandez, 35; and Janelle Ortiz, 28, a transgender woman whose birth name was Humberto Ortiz. Police say they believe the last two victims were killed around Sept. 14. 
 
 Hernandez was shot twice in the neck but died from blunt force trauma to the head, Alaniz said Wednesday. The other three victims were killed by a gunshot to head. 
 
 Alaniz said that at least two or possibly three of the victims “knew” Ortiz or had “seen him before,” but he would not elaborate on the nature of their relationships. 
 
 “The investigation continues but I can say that at least two of these people knew him by the name of David,” he said. 
 
 Authorities said in September that Ortiz had an arsenal of weapons at this home and that he may have wanted to die in a confrontation with police. 
 
 "He had numerous, numerous weapons — he was loading up all these weapons thinking that DPS was going to confront him and he was looking at a confrontation. Thank God that didn't happen," Webb County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Federico Garza said, referring to Texas' law enforcement agency, the Department of Public Safety, at a news conference on Sept. 17. 
 
 Ortiz was spotted at a gas station by state troopers and confronted before fleeing to a nearby hotel and hiding under a pickup truck in the parking lot, Garza said. 
 
 "He was going to try to commit suicide by cop. He tried to use his phone to make it look like it was a weapon," Garza said. "It didn’t happen. He was arrested without incident." 
 
 An official with Customs and Border Protection told NBC News on Wednesday that "Mr. Ortiz has been suspended without pay since his arrest, CBP will continue to support other law enforcement agencies conducting the investigation related to this case." ||||| FILE - This file photo provided by the Webb County Sheriff's Office shows U.S. Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz. Ortiz, who confessed to shooting four women in the head and leaving their bodies on... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This file photo provided by the Webb County Sheriff's Office shows U.S. Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz. Ortiz, who confessed to shooting four women in the head and leaving their bodies on rural Texas roadsides, was indicted Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, on a capital murder charge. (Webb County... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - This file photo provided by the Webb County Sheriff's Office shows U.S. Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz. Ortiz, who confessed to shooting four women in the head and leaving their bodies on rural Texas roadsides, was indicted Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, on a capital murder charge. (Webb County... (Associated Press) FILE - This file photo provided by the Webb County Sheriff's Office shows U.S. Border Patrol agent Juan David Ortiz. Ortiz, who confessed to shooting four women in the head and leaving their bodies on... (Associated Press) 
 
 LAREDO, Texas (AP) — The Latest on the indictment of a U.S. Border Patrol agent on a capital murder charge in the slaying of four women (all times local): 
 
 4:30 p.m. 
 
 A prosecutor says he considered the "horrific nature" of the killings and the suspect's vigilante mentality when deciding to pursue the death penalty against a U.S. Border Patrol agent who confessed to killing four female sex workers. 
 
 Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz announced Wednesday that a grand jury has indicted Juan David Ortiz on a capital murder charge, an upgrade from the initial murder charges against him. 
 
 Alaniz says a person can be charged with capital murder if more than one person is killed in the same scheme with an overarching motive. Alaniz said the scheme was — in Ortiz's words — "to clean up the streets of Laredo." 
 
 Alaniz says Ortiz considered the women disposable and didn't give value to them. Alaniz said the evidence presented to the grand jury showed that Ortiz killed the women "in a cold, callous and calculating way." 
 
 He said he considers Ortiz a danger to society. 
 
 ___ 
 
 3:35 p.m. 
 
 The U.S. Border Patrol agent who confessed to killing four women in a Texas border city told investigators he considered himself a righteous vigilante. 
 
 Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz also told a news conference Wednesday that he will seek the death penalty for Juan David Ortiz, who is charged with capital murder in the September deaths. 
 
 Alaniz says Ortiz told investigators that he aimed to "clean up the streets of Laredo" with the slayings. 
 
 Police have said the women killed were all sex workers, and that he targeted them because they were vulnerable. 
 
 ___ 
 
 3:20 p.m. 
 
 A U.S. Border Patrol agent who confessed to shooting four women in the head and leaving their bodies on rural Texas roadsides has been indicted on a capital murder charge. 
 
 Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said Wednesday that a grand jury decided to upgrade the charges against 35-year-old Juan David Ortiz. 
 
 Ortiz was initially charged with four counts of murder, as well as aggravated assault and unlawful restraint. He has been jailed on a $2.5 million bond since his Sept. 15 arrest in the border town of Laredo. 
 
 Authorities have said the victims were sex workers whom Ortiz targeted for their vulnerability. He was arrested almost two weeks after the first slaying after a woman escaped from him and asked a state trooper for help.
– A Border Patrol agent who allegedly killed four women and kidnapped another has been indicted on a capital murder charge, the AP reports. Juan David Ortiz, 35, initially faced four murder charges after authorities arrested him in the border town on Sept. 15. The charge was upgraded because, prosecutors say, Ortiz caused the death of more than one person in service of the “same scheme or course of conduct,” NBC reports, which adds that prosecutors will seek the death penalty. In this case, the Ortiz’s stated motivation for the alleged slayings was “to clean up the streets of Laredo,” Webb County DA Isidro Alaniz said Wednesday. Ortiz, a Navy veteran and 10-year Border Patrol agent, also faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful restraint, and evading arrest. Authorities say Ortiz picked up the victims, all of whom were sex workers or had drug problems, and shot them during a two-week period in September. Ortiz has reportedly confessed to the killings. The victims are Melissa Ramirez, 29; Claudine Ann Luera, 42; Guiselda Alicia Hernandez, 35; and Janelle Ortiz, 28. Calling the murders “horrific,” Alaniz said the women were killed “in a cold, callous, and calculating way.” (A security guard allegedly killed this tourist.)