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A Las Vegas, New Mexico, man is accused of killing his girlfriend and her grandfather, livestreaming it on his Facebook page and then firing at officers before they arrested him on Sunday.
Alejandro Alirez, 23, was arrested by San Miguel Sheriff’s Office deputies Sunday after a standoff.
According to police investigators, he claimed his girlfriend and her grandfather were raping children, and he wanted people to know. He also told police he had purchased a gun so he could kill his nieces and nephews, and at one point said he was mad at his sisters because they had not killed their children.
In a news article published in 2018, his family said he had started acting irrationally a year earlier.
According to Alirez’s arrest warrant, Alirez’s mother flagged down deputies about 3 p.m. Sunday and told them she was concerned about her son. She said he was irate, had a gun and was with his girlfriend, 33-year-old Cristal Cervantes.
When officers responded to the address on Peggy Lee Lane in Las Vegas, they were shot at several times. Officers also became aware Alirez was livestreaming on his Facebook account and could see Alirez carrying a gun in the video and shooting Cervantes.
In the video, which has since been removed, Alirez hovered over Victor Cervantes, his girlfriend’s 89-year-old grandfather, who was hunched over and wasn’t moving.
“I shot her grandpo,” Alirez said in the video. “I killed this guy. My girlfriend is still alive.”
He went on to say, “I think my girl is about to die. I shot her in the head. … I’m gonna shoot at these cops again. … I was planning to kill these two fools and leave,” according to the affidavit.
It’s not clear how many people may have viewed the video before it was taken down.
New Mexico State Police crisis negotiators were eventually able to contact Alirez and get him to surrender. Alirez said he gave up so “he could let them know that children were being raped,” according to the affidavit.
When interviewed by State Police, Alirez said that Cristal Cervantes was allowing people to come into the residence and have sex with him while he was asleep. He also said that children were being molested and that he needed to save them.
Alirez told police he purchased a gun last week and planned to use it to kill his nieces and nephews. He said he was upset with his two sisters because they wouldn’t kill their children.
Before he shot Cristal Cervantes, he asked her to apologize for molesting his niece, according to the affidavit. She denied ever having molested the niece right before Alirez shot her in the head.
Alirez’s Facebook page shows that around the time of the shooting, he posted a message saying, “So the fbis molesting everyone’s kids kill your family members.” He also posted a video on his Facebook page of someone shooting a gun.
According to a Taos News article from 2018 after Alirez had been arrested in a bank robbery attempt in Taos, Alirez’s relatives said that he had started to act irrationally after suffering a grand mal seizure when he was 19 that may have left him brain-damaged. They would have to force him to eat, and he would stare into space and sometimes ventured away from home without telling anyone, according to the news article.
During the April 2018 bank robbery, Alirez allegedly used a fire extinguisher, then kitchen knives, to fend off police.
Alirez previously underwent competency evaluations after being charged in that case, as well as another bank robbery attempt in Colorado, and after he was accused of stealing a vehicle in Las Vegas, both in 2017.
In the most recent incident, Alirez has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated assault upon a peace officer and shooting at an inhabited dwelling or occupied building.
Four deputies were shot at during the standoff but were uninjured, according to the San Miguel Sheriff’s Office.
