AZ Daily Star
Resident wounds, kills home invaders
By Dale Quinn
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.04.2007
advertisementA Southwest Side man shot two men Tuesday night, killing one and wounding another, after a group of men burst into his home and broke down the door to the bedroom where he had been sleeping.
The armed invasion is the third time in a week armed men have broken into Southwest Side homes threatening the occupants.
In the latest incident, the occupants of the home — three adults and one child — were not injured, but concern about possible retaliation from the armed robbers or their friends has the family thinking about moving.
Philip M. Mendoza, 22, shot the intruders with a shotgun after they had rushed into the house, forced his family to the floor and attempted to break into the bedroom, said Sgt. James Ogden, a spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
The day after the shooting, Mendoza said he didn't know why the invaders chose his family's house, but that his mother no longer feels safe there.
"I'm pretty sure we're going to get out of here," Mendoza said. "My mom is scared. My mom is terrified."
He said people had already driven by his house saying they'd known the men who'd been shot at the home.
Anthony Ralph Amavisca, 32, of the 700 block of North San Rafael Avenue, died at the scene and Carlos Jesus Alcaraz, 31, was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
Many invasions unreported
Tucson police are investigating a possible link between two earlier home invasions — one that occurred Tuesday morning and one Dec. 27 — that happened near South Midvale Park and West Drexel roads.
Sheriff's Department investigators have not yet determined whether the latest home invasion has anything to do with the previous two. The fatal shooting happened about five miles from the previous two incidents.
"It doesn't look like it is connected, but it's still in the early stages of the investigation," Ogden said.
Tucson police will work with the Sheriff's Department to see if the crimes are linked, said Sgt. Mark Robinson, a police spokesman. He said there hasn't necessarily been a rising trend of home invasions and sometimes the crimes are never reported to police.
Historically, victims of home-invasion robberies are sometimes involved in illegal activity such as drugs or people smuggling and "do not report these types of incidents to the authorities," Robinson said. "Local authorities learn about them from neighbors or witness reports."
Invaders flee with wounded
According to the Sheriff's Department, the latest case began after 10 p.m. Tuesday as a woman was doing laundry near the back of a house on West Valencia Road near South Mark Road.
Six men, some of whom were armed, entered through an unlocked rear door. The men yelled at the people in the home and ordered them on the floor.
The noise awakened Mendoza, who was sleeping in a bedroom. He said he then locked the door to his room and got a loaded shotgun that was in his room.
He saw the doorknob turn and then one of the men kicked down the bedroom door. Mendoza said he fired the shotgun, wounding the man. Then a second man appeared in the door, and Mendoza shot again, killing the man.
The home invaders picked up the wounded man and fled in a dark-colored sedan, according to the Sheriff's Department.
Mendoza called the police at about 10:40 p.m.
A few minutes after Mendoza's call, sheriff's deputies received a second call about a shooting victim and went to a residence nearby in the 5000 block of West Corona Road. There they found a man with what appeared to be a gunshot wound and saw a dark-colored sedan in the driveway.
Four men in the house were detained and questioned. Deputies released two of the men and arrested Philip Nidez Valencia, 28, of the 800 block of West Calle Ventura, and Robert Sanchez Escobedo, 25, of the 1400 block of West Sonora Street, on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with the home invasion, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
The men were arrested under the felony-murder rule, which allows an individual to be charged with murder when someone dies during the commission of certain crimes, even if the individual is not directly responsible for the death.
Ogden could not say what the home invaders expected to find when they entered the house, citing the early processes of the investigation.
No decision yet on charges
The Sheriff's Department will present the evidence to the Pima County Attorney's Office, which will decide if Mendoza will face charges for shooting the home invaders, Ogden said.
According to court documents Sanchez has been arrested several times on charges including weapons misconduct and possession of drug paraphernalia. Alcaraz also has past arrests on drug charges, court documents show.
In the Tuesday morning home invasion, several men forced their way into a home in the 1600 block of West Maplewood Drive and demanded valuables. On Dec. 27, just two doors down in the 1500 block of Maplewood, assailants invaded a home in a similar manner.
● Contact reporter Dale Quinn at 629-9412 or
dquinn@azstarnet.com.
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