The day they apparently ended up shooting each other, brothers Ben and Dominic Archibeque were supposed to work on the water system at their Los Brazos house, Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Det. Wayne Salazar said Monday.
“Basically, that’s what they started off to do, but they started drinking, and those plans were interrupted,” Salazar said.
Ben Archibeque, 26, is still on life support at St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe after being shot three times — in the back, shoulder and leg — Aug. 11, Salazar said. Dominic Archibeque, 27, who was located at the house 12 hours after the shooting with a gunshot wound to his left hand, is still the only suspect in the case, Salazar said.
The details of the case are still unclear — since Dominic Archibeque told investigators last week that he didn’t remember who started shooting first, he hasn’t wavered on his story, Salazar said. Ben Archibeque’s condition is the one thing hindering the investigation at this point.
“We’re waiting for (Ben Archibeque) to recover to some degree so I can interview him,” Salazar said. “We don’t have eyewitnesses to the scene itself.”
Several small-caliber weapons and casings were recovered from the scene, Salazar said. But neither that evidence, or whatever might be turned up when deputies search Dominic Archibeque’s Chevy Sierra, is as important as the victim’s statements, Salazar said.
However, Ben Archibeque was still breathing and conscious when deputies first arrived on the scene of the shooting and was reluctant then to say who shot him, Salazar said.
With the permission of the District Attorney’s office, Salazar said he will bring the case before a grand jury even if the brothers don’t want to press charges against each other.
SUN Staff Report
An Española Police officer’s hunch led to the immediate recovery of a stolen truck, before it could be stripped for parts.
The blue and gray 1980 Chevy pickup in question was parked at Rent-A-Center in Española Aug. 6 because its owner, Ryan Bradshaw, was trying to sell it, a police report states. Bradshaw spotted the truck being driven near his own Española residence and reported it stolen just after midnight.
Officer Vince Crespin just happened to have seen Fernando Espinosa, 24, driving a similar truck at Las Lomas Apartments earlier in the night.
“I had a hunch that (Espinosa) would probably take the vehicle to a location behind Española Valley High School known as the ‘pit’ so he could strip it for sellable parts,” Crespin wrote in his report. “Mr. Espinosa is a hardcore drug addict and steals to support his habit.”
Sure enough, Crespin and officer Marvin Armijo found the truck parked near the water tank behind the high school, with no one around. The officers followed footprints to State Road 291 until they lost the trail; then they proceeded to Espinosa’s residence on Pacheco Lane.
Espinosa was found in his residence, described as a storage shed, and admitted stealing the truck, the report states. He said he intended to strip the truck and sell the parts or trade them for drugs. Espinosa was charged with receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle and was being held on no bond pending arraignment, the report states.