» Boys’ deaths shouldn’t be overlooked

Even in the middle of the day, in the hours after school before the spring sun sets, there is an eerie loneliness, a fear that catches in the throat here along the stretch of concrete and sand of the Amole del Norte Arroyo.

Two boys, best friends, died here, bullets to their heads.

It happened a year ago last Friday on the backside of this modest Southwest Heights neighborhood, and still there have been no arrests and very little information released to the public.


	More information Police ask anyone with information in the homicides to call Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP.

So, here is what we know: Jeremy Trujillo and Samuel Gutierrez had been friends as long as anybody can remember. Trujillo, 16, was the outdoorsman, the kid with visions of owning a business someday that could benefit his family. Gutierrez, 17, was the jokester, the kid who liked to look good and dress well.

They had often taken the arroyo bike path on their way to and from Robert F. Kennedy High School two miles north from their neighborhood of brown stucco, pitched roof homes on Desert Breeze SW near Unser and Arenal.

It was just before 2 p.m. March 22, 2012, when they were gunned down on the bike path.

Witnesses say they heard perhaps as many as eight gunshots before finding the boys – one lying just off the bike path, the other face-up at the bottom of the arroyo behind the homes on Desert Breeze near Purple Cone SW.

The boys’ last seconds alive were captured on a surveillance video from a nearby home security system. In the video, they are two boys with backpacks walking on the bike path. Just before they walk out of range of the camera, they appear to stop behind a cinder block wall that separates the path from the neighborhood.

Their killers are also believed to be on that video. In the minutes before Trujillo and Gutierrez come into view, two individuals wearing hoodies and riding bikes are captured by the camera facing the arroyo and another facing Desert Breeze. The bicyclists appear to circle the neighborhood, and, at one point, pass the boys without incident on the bike path next to the arroyo. Seconds later, the bicyclists double back toward the boys. Although much of what occurs next is obstructed by the cinder block wall, one bicyclist can be seen raising an object in his hand. Then, one of the boys slumps to the ground.

Albuquerque police released the video to the public but offered little further information. A Crime Stoppers was issued in November.

Neighbors wondered whether the homicides were connected with a brawl that had occurred among a large group of youths at the nearby Desert Springs Park the day before. Others pointed to a particular house in the neighborhood that might yield clues to the suspects’ identities.

Then nothing happened.

“We continue to receive tips, but nothing that has led to results,” APD spokeswoman Tasia Martinez said last week. “Unfortunately, the video did not result in any Crime Stoppers tips.”

The unavoidable question is why, after a year, the homicides of Trujillo and Gutierrez remain unsolved.

Neighbors, friends and family members of the boys railed about the lack of outrage over the deaths of two boys on a bike path in broad daylight. There were no news conferences, no police task force assigned – as had occurred when three teenage boys were gunned down in 1999 on a road in the East Mountains – no daily coverage for months, (though the Journal wrote three stories on the arroyo shooting case).

It was as if the public and the police had simply accepted that the boys’ deaths were connected to the stereotypes of West Side gangs and drugs and violence, though no such behavior has ever publicly been tied to the boys.

A cross and many flowers and trinkets adorn the spot where Jeremy Trujillo, 16, was gunned down along the Amole del Norte Arroyo. Trujillo and best friend Samuel Gutierrez, 17, were both shot and killed March 22, 2012, but so far no arrests have been made. (JOLINE GUTIERREZ KRUEGER/JOURNAL)

But reporters at the time said their job had been made more difficult by family members too shaken to speak and neighbors so angry with the intrusion that several TV reporters were pelted with rocks and warned by police to leave the area.

Too, the boys were killed in a bloody week that saw not one but two APD officer-involved fatal shootings, a separate shooting death and a double shooting at a South Valley restaurant parking lot in which both victims survived.

Still, none of that is excuse enough. The time for complacency is long over.

We should demand that those who know something about who killed Trujillo and Gutierrez – two best friends, two boys, come forward – and start talking. We should question why we care about some teenagers’ deaths and not others. We should demand that police rededicate themselves to solving this case. We should never forget what happened at the Amole del Norte Arroyo, nor should we allow it to happen again.

As I walked along that bike path last week, it’s hard to forget. The wind howls, the bike path is empty. The arroyo is patched with white and light gray paint, evidence of the efforts to erase unsightly graffiti.

But in the place where two boys died, letters are scrawled large in blue spray paint across the arroyo walls and left untouched. It’s hard to make out what it says. RIP, perhaps. Names, perhaps.

On either side of the bike path are two memorials, one for each boy, both adorned with brightly colored fabric flowers, glittery Christmas trees, teddy bears, solar lights, failed attempts at growing sod and handmade wooden crosses painted blue and carved with their names.

Where’s the outrage? It starts here.

It’s time it goes further than that.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.