A man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally shot and killed four people in Nevada over the past two weeks, including an elderly Reno couple, authorities said, and the slayings added fuel to the immigration debate.
Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 19, from El Salvador, has been jailed in Carson City since Saturday on possession of stolen property, burglary and immigration charges. Authorities said they expect to file murder charges against him in Reno in the shooting deaths of a Washoe County couple and in Douglas County in the slayings of two women in Gardnerville.
Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said federal immigration authorities told his office that Martinez-Guzman was in the country illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have details on his entry into the U.S.
The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff said, and it was too early to comment on a possible motive.
Investigators who had been tracking Martinez-Guzman considered him “an imminent threat” when they arrested him Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of a shopping mall.
“We couldn’t account for him Friday night, and we couldn’t predict what he would do Saturday night,” Furlong told The Associated Press. “It was too great a risk to the public not to make the arrest.”
Suspect in custody as investigations of homicides in Washoe and Douglas Counties continue https://t.co/KD7flhJW52 pic.twitter.com/RBbhIvnTfO
— Washoe Sheriff (@WashoeSheriff) January 20, 2019
Detectives had watched Martinez-Guzman go to a car wash and trash bins, raising concern that he might try to dispose of evidence connected to the slayings. He did not have a weapon when he was handcuffed, the sheriff said.
The suspect did not yet have an attorney who could speak on his behalf, according to the sheriff.
President Donald Trump seized on the killings as evidence of the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.
“Four people in Nevada viciously robbed and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our Country,” Trump said Monday in a tweet. “We need a powerful Wall!”
Four people in Nevada viciously robbed and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our Country. 26 people killed on the Border in a drug and gang related fight. Two large Caravans from Honduras broke into Mexico and are headed our way. We need a powerful Wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2019
The killings are the latest crimes Trump has cited to bring attention to the wall, which is at the center of his battle with Democrats that has shut down much of the federal government.
Since the start of his presidency, he has highlighted crimes committed by immigrants who were here illegally, including the killing of a 32-year-old woman at a San Francisco pier in 2015. Last month, he tweeted about allegations that a man from Mexico who was living in the U.S. illegally fatally shot a California police officer.
Many academics and Trump’s critics have pushed back on the president’s narrative, citing studies that have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.
The Nevada suspect, who was due in court Thursday, had lived in the Carson City area for about a year. His only known infraction was a speeding ticket, the sheriff said.
“We have no information this guy has ever been on anyone’s radar,” Furlong said.
Democrats are kidding themselves (they don’t really believe it!) if they say you can stop Crime, Drugs, Human Trafficking and Caravans without a Wall or Steel Barrier. Stop playing games and give America the Security it deserves. A Humanitarian Crisis!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2019
“The Democrats are playing politics with Border Security.” @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
The investigation began Jan. 10, when 56-year-old Connie Koontz was found dead in her home. Three days later, the body of 74-year-old Sophia Renken was discovered in her home about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where Koontz lived, authorities said.
On Jan. 16, the bodies of 81-year-old Gerald David and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, were found in their home on the southern edge of Reno.
The two were remembered as “jovial” by Tom Cates, a longtime friend who knew the Davids through Reno’s rodeo and equestrian scene.
Cates said Gerald David used his time as the Reno Rodeo Association president in 2006 to promote a breast cancer awareness campaign by getting the group’s cowboys to show they were “tough enough to wear pink shirts.”
“You walk into a room and his presence will just command attention. He was a true leader,” Cates said.
Without a Wall our Country can never have Border or National Security. With a powerful Wall or Steel Barrier, Crime Rates (and Drugs) will go substantially down all over the U.S. The Dems know this but want to play political games. Must finally be done correctly. No Cave!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
Sharon David was “exuberant” and “bubbly” and “loved animals to the hills,” he said. She was a former director of the rodeo.
Renken belonged to an antique automobile club and was known as the friendly driver of a Ford Model A who was always volunteering to help.
Robin Reedy, who was also in the Carson-Tahoe Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, said she was surprised to learn Renken’s age.
“I would never have known she was 74 by the way she acted,” she said.
Koontz, who worked at a Walmart and as a manicurist at a local salon, was remembered by co-workers Tuesday as a positive woman who loved wearing bright colors. Her Walmart colleagues wore memorial buttons with her picture.
She was “the only person I know that could come to work wearing lime green glasses and lime green crocs and rock it,” said Teri Bower, who works at the store.
Koontz and her daughter were best friends, Bower said, and the mother had saved up money and surprised her daughter with a trip to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday in December.
Bower said the killings had shaken the quiet community where everyone knows everyone and big news is a pending storm “or a bear running down Main Street.”
“This does not happen around here,” Bower said. “It’s crazy.”
Marist/NPR/PBS Poll shows President Trump’s approval rating among Latinos going to 50%, an increase in one year of 19%. Thank you, working hard!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
Never seen @senatemajldr and Republicans so united on an issue as they are on the Humanitarian Crisis & Security on our Southern Border. If we create a Wall or Barrier which prevents Criminals and Drugs from flowing into our Country, Crime will go down by record numbers!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 22, 2019
(AP)
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11 Responses
Drumpf hits the Twitter send button before it is even known how this guy entered the US. Furthermore there is a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. However nothing will stop Drumpf from stoking the flames of hatred and demonizing others.
Most tellingly the only time Drumpf takes his time to establish facts and the only times he demands evidence before mouthing off is when his buddies in Saudi Arabia dismember journalists or when his supporters chant “Jews will not displace us” in Charlottesville and he becomes tounge tied when “he doesnt know David Duke” and is unaware about Steve King’s racist comments.
How come not a peep about mass shootings in the months since parkland for example? Every death is a horrific tragedy, but many more Americans are murdered by homegrown Americans. Should we put up walls around every state and city?
@RT
Do you lock your doors at night? Why??? Well as a country, we’d like to lock our doors too. We can open it for whomever we want. Gotta lock it though or you’ll welcome the bad guys…
We have our own baggage to deal with (mostly mentally disturbed). No need to allow vicious gangs, terrorists & drug dealers in.
Rt- the fact that we don’t have a cure for cancer doesn’t not mean that we shouldn’t take antibiotics when we have an infection. No one is claiming that we can solve all crime by removing illegal immigrants.. when an American commits a crime the victim knows there is evil and we deal with it , but when the attacker had no businesss been here to start with the victim can be upset at the government for failing to protect him or her. Many of the illegals who commit crimes were arrested before or even deported yet our failure to protect the border allows them right back.
We often hear how crime rates go up near metro stations , poorer areas have higher crime rates. Illegas are coming mostly from communities with higher crime rates ( not because of race but becs of socioeconomic reasons), the us has become more developed why should we be willing to allow our crime rates to become higher only because there is also crime done by Americans
The crime rates of immigrants are lower than the rates for those of us born here. This one guy may be awful, but he is not typical, so there is no point to this story.
Bunny 76- of course we lock our doors, but we don’t have 15 foot walls topped with barbed wire on top around our property, that’s overkill. Some bright lights, perhaps security cameras would go a long way in helping.
The border needs to be secured, agreed to by everyone, the issue is how best to do that. There will never be a wall all along the 2000 mile border. Barriers and fences where necessary, more border agents and state of the art technology everywhere.
huju, South American countries are full of gangs and violence, drugs and corruption. We have to protect our borders, period.
Rt, is are in for a big shock from many in your liberal Democrat party when you said that everyone agrees that the border needs to be secured. We are dealing with a more radical and dengerous left party, of which I believe you are part of. But, forget it, continue to call Trump a similar name to Hitler, because someone like you can’t differentiate someone who killed 6 million jews and destroyed countless Jewish towns, to another American President.
Good for you liberals , we can see you have all your talking points memorized. The fact that there are American criminals only strengthens the case against letting in additional illegal-alien ones. Immigrants contribute immensely, at least the ones that come in legally, and the US immigration policy today is extremely generous (unlike under FDR). So get in line and wait your turn. Don’t jump our borders. Prez, Build the wall.
To philosopher: So if you are right, why do immigrants to the US have lower crime rates than those of us born here? Yes, there are bad people south of our US border, but immigrants to the US have lower crime rates than those of us born here. More immigrants would lower US crime rates.
“Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said federal immigration authorities told his office that Martinez-Guzman was in the country illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have details on his entry into the U.S.” Please note how AP reports unpleasant (for them) facts. They report them as opinions. Liberal media does it a lot.