Plano hammer attack suspect admitted he 'hurt multiple people and didn't know why,' arrest warrant says

PLANO, Texas - Plano police say family members of the man responsible for a series of unprovoked attacks across DFW turned him in because they were worried he’d hurt someone else.

Charles Murray, 26, is charged with aggravated assault for an attack at a Plano gas station. It's believed he may have committed a similar attack on a DART train.

Family members say they turned Murray in after they claim he admitted to the attacks and saw his pictures on FOX 4. An unnamed family member said they heard him say he had "hurt multiple people and didn't know why" and that he "tossed the hammer." 

Murray is accused of violently attacking a stranger inside a busy RaceTrac gas station located off Coit Road on Tuesday. Police say the victim was inside the bathroom when Murray came in and began beating him with a hammer.

"When the officers got there, they realized the subject had been attacked unprovoked," Plano PD officer Jennifer Chapman said.

Murray was gone by the time officers arrived at the gas station, but employees were able to provide detectives with still images from security cameras.

Plano police shared those pictures with news outlets. They learned someone matching the same description used a hammer to randomly assault someone on the orange line of a DART train earlier that same day.

FOX 4 aired those images on Wednesday. Chapman says a relative of Murray saw him on FOX 4 and called police.

The family member said they heard him say "he had hurt multiple people and didn't know why" and that he "tossed the hammer," according to the affidavit.

"They were able to recognize him. They called it in to Dallas PD. Dallas PD went and made contact with this person. We confirmed that this was somebody we were looking for. Detectives were able to get a warrant and put him into custody," she explained. "There was no reason for the act of violence he committed."

Murray was arrested by Plano police at a relative’s home in Dallas on Thursday. 

Monique Austin isn't the family member who called police, but she says her family is worried about her cousin's mental health.

"I was watching the news, and I happened to call my mother, and I told my mother that I saw him on the news. And she was like, ‘He was right here.’ So I was like, ‘Just ask him, is he going around hitting people with hammers?’ And he said he was, and he didn’t know why he did it," she recalled. "I hope that he gets the help that he needs. He’s very unstable in the head, and he needs his help. He needs his medication."

DART says a charge is coming for its case, too.

"We sorry that it happened to the victims," Austin said. "We’re very sorry that it happened."

Murray’s family believes there might be additional cases.

"We asked him did he do anyone else, and he said he did someone else," Austin said. 

Murray’s family says he’s been unstable for most of his life. They said his mother died when he was an infant and that he’s been homeless as an adult. His family says they’ve tried to help, but it’s not working.

Charles Murray (Source: Plano Police)

"Because he is rowdy with us," Austin said. "We’ll have to call the police on him."

Now, they have no regrets about calling police again.

"It’s just better for us to call the police than for him to be out on the street, and he does it again, and somebody shoots and kills him, or rather the police shoots and kills him," Austin said. "So it was better for us to do it."

Murray is being held in the Collin County jail on a $30,000 bond.

A DART spokesperson said she did not know if a DART security officer was on the train during the attack.

DART is spending $7.5 million annually on more than 100 security officers to ride trains and crack down on crime.