New Mexico State Police arrested an 18-year-old Truchas man Sunday on a charge of second-degree murder for allegedly shooting his father in the chest and killing him during an argument.
Ricky Romero is accused of fatally shooting his 44-year-old father, Fernando Romero.
State Police Agent Ezequiel Esquivel-Mata wrote in an affidavit for an arrest warrant that dispatchers received an open 911 call from the house on County Road 77 in Truchas and at some point someone told dispatchers that the father suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and wasn’t breathing.
“It was learned that Ricky (Romero) and his father Fernando were involved in a verbal argument prior to the shot being fired,” Esquivel-Mata wrote. “The firearm used was reported to be on the kitchen table inside the residence.”
At the house, another officer met with Ricky Romero, arrested him and took him to the State Police office, he wrote.
A witness, who lives in Albuquerque, told officers he called 911 and he heard four to seven gunshots over the phone and the grandmother, Debra Romero, screaming “Ricky killed my son! Please come!” He then called 911.
Ricky Romero told officers that he was talking to his grandmother and she tried putting her hand underneath his chin in an upward manner to get him to bite his tongue, so he pinched her shirt, which led to an argument and he was asked to leave. He started walking away and his father threw a piece of firewood at him, nearly hitting him, Esquivel-Mata wrote.
“Ricky then grabbed a handful of gravel from the ground and threw it at his father Fernando,” he wrote. “Ricky described then observing Fernando jumping over the porch and began running towards him. Ricky ran into the home he shares with Fernando and locked the front door so he couldn’t enter.”
He told investigators he took a shower and his father got into an argument with his mother, he left the house and locked Fernando Romero out again and his father leveled a .38-caliber pistol at him and yelling, “imma kill you!” Esquivel-Mata wrote.
Ricky Romero told investigators Fernando Romero get back into the house through a back door, he got a black gun from Fernando Romero’s side of the bed and his father told him, to “do it,” calling him a “punk,” and then charging toward him.
“Ricky said he then fired the pistol once and struck Fernando in the chest,” Esquivel-Mata wrote. “Ricky described not seeing Fernando with any weapons in his hands and did not know the whereabouts of the revolver he previously observed. Ricky described thinking, ‘not gonna touch me, not gonna touch my mom’ prior to firing the weapon.”
He said he did CPR on his dad and had tried to shoot him in the belly, he wrote.
“Ricky described Fernando as abusive and claimed his sister, mother and he endured abuse for several years from Fernando.”
Prosecutors have asked for a conditions of release hearing to be postponed for 24 hours while they decide whether or not to ask a judge to hold Romero without bail as a danger to the community.