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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Friday, November 13, 2009
Victim's Family Shares Anger, Frustration Over Shooting
By Vic Vela
Journal Staff Writer
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — The mother of the man who was recently shot to death at an intersection here said the soldier on leave from Iraq who pulled the trigger is hardly a hero in her eyes.
“He's a hero because he went to Iraq,” Lucy Lemos, the mother of Benito Lemos, said of shooting suspect Richard Baca. “But I don't call him a hero. A hero wouldn't do something like this. I call him a coward.
“This is not Iraq. This is America. What gives him the right to ride around with a gun in his car?”
Baca, 21, is a National Guard Specialist who was visiting family here while on leave from the Middle East. He now faces an open count of murder after he shot Lemos three times in the chest Monday in an apparent road rage incident.
Baca claims he was acting in self-defense after Lemos, 22 — nicknamed the “Beast” at Robertson High School, where he was a defensive standout on the football team — began punching Baca as Baca sat in his car at an intersection.
Lemos became angry with Baca after Baca cut off the car Lemos was riding in, according to police.
A memorial was held in the high school's gymnasium Thursday evening, where Lemos' body lay in a casket surrounded by flower arrangements and photographs of the mail carrier and father of two.
Many friends, family members and supporters showed up, including men who played football with Lemos, both at Robertson High and recently with the Las Vegas Outlaws adult football team. Pallbearers wore Cardinals football jerseys with the number 75 that Lemos wore when the team won the Class 3A state championship in 2005.
Among them was Outlaws teammate Leroy Tafoya, who fondly remembered Lemos as an “intense” leader, but one who also had a good sense of humor to keep teammates' spirits high.
Tafoya also said that, in spite of Lemos' “Beast” nickname, the moniker didn't always fit.
“He had a good heart,” he said. “If you didn't have clothes, he'd take his off and give them to you. He was a good person.”
Near his casket was a large, family portrait of Lemos, his young children and his fiancée, Germaine Lovato. She was driving the Cadillac that Lemos exited to confront Baca on the night in question.
Lovato did not have much to say about the specifics of the incident. However, when asked whether she felt it was appropriate for Lemos to confront Baca after she was cut off, Lovato said, “He was protecting his family.”
The Journal reported in Thursday's edition that Baca had posted on his MySpace page that he was eager to use a semi-automatic pistol he had recently obtained. The day before he shot Lemos, Baca posted on his profile page on the Web site that he had “1,200 9mm rounds sitting in my car, I am going to finish them off. Anyone wanna join me?”
Las Vegas Police Chief Gary Gold said that Lemos was shot with 9mm bullets. He also said that detectives are looking into Baca's MySpace posts as part of their investigation.
Lovato was identified in the Thursday article as Lemos' wife, based on an obituary provided by the family. She said Thursday that the couple had expected to marry this summer.
Lemos was struck down in front of Lovato and his two children, who waited in the car as he exited the vehicle.
“What kind of a man would do something like that in front of his children?” an emotional Lucy Lemos said as she stood outside her home on Hot Springs Boulevard with family members before Thursday's memorial.
Although Lovato would not comment about what happened, Venita Vigil, Lemos' sister, said that Baca had also threatened her soon-to-be sister-in-law after he shot Lemos.
Vigil said Lovato told her that, when she saw Lemos fall to the ground, she ran to her fiancé's body. When she realized he had been shot, she turned to Baca — who was still holding his gun — and he said, “ 'Yeah, and what?' ” according to Vigil.
“Germaine couldn't console Benito right at the very end,” Vigil said.
Vigil also said that her brother never hit Baca, according to what Lovato told her. Vigil said that her brother was riding in the car barefoot and wearing pajama bottoms as the family was on its way to pick up dinner.
She said it wasn't her brother's intent to get out of the car, much less start punching someone, that evening.
However, Baca's account to police painted a different picture. He said that Lemos approached his car and accused him of nearly hitting the Cadillac. Baca denied it, then Lemos punched him in the face “several times,” according to his account in a probable cause statement.
Baca warned Lemos that he had a gun, but Lemos continued to punch him, the report states. Baca then fired three bullets into Lemos' chest.
Baca's mother, Diane Garcia, told the Journal on Wednesday that, if her son shot someone, “He probably had a damn good reason.” Garcia would not comment further when reached by phone Thursday.
Lemos family members said that, even if Baca had felt threatened, he took things too far.
“You are taught to control your shooting,” Vigil said of members of the military. “He was trained to do that. He didn't have to do that.”
Another Lemos sister, Christina Lemos, said that Baca could have “rolled up the window and could have took off.”
“He didn't have to shoot my brother three times in the chest,” she said.
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