An investigation into the attack of a teenage girl at a Southeast Albuquerque park led detectives to arrest a 12-year-old girl in the beating and her 15-year-old brother in an unrelated rape that happened the day before.
Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said the siblings were arrested Friday by the SWAT team at a home on Cardenas SE.
He said the boy is charged with rape and the girl, along with two other teens, are charged with aggravated battery and kidnapping in the beating. Gallegos did not identify the siblings arrested Friday.
He said the investigation also uncovered a burglary that led to the theft of several rifles from a home in Corrales.
Gallegos said the sexual assault, the beating and gun burglary were all tied — in one way or another — to parties held on the second weekend in March at the home on Cardenas SE, where the arrest occurred.
Gallegos said SWAT officers also arrested another teen and Bronze Yarrell, 29, at the home on outstanding warrants. Court records show Yarrell’s warrant was for failing to show up in court on traffic citations.
The investigation began when detectives uncovered what police called a “disturbing” assault on a 13-year-old girl at Jack and Jill Park.
Police said the teen and her friend snuck out on March 11 to go to a party at the home on Cardenas SE. Once at the party, the girls were separated and one was taken to the park, which is blocks from Cardenas, and “severely beaten.”
The injured teen went to a home near the park and the homeowner drove her back to the home she had snuck out of, according to police. The friend she was separated from was not injured.
Gallegos said as detectives investigated the beating, they learned from Corrales police about the home burglary overnight March 10. He said a 13-year-old girl who lived at the Corrales home also snuck out to go to a party at the home on Cardenas with other teens.
“At some point that night, two boys returned to the home in Corrales and stole hunting rifles,” Gallegos said. He said the girl called her parents the next morning, March 11, to pick her up from the Cardenas home.
Gallegos said the parents reported the burglary and authorities recognized the Cardenas address as the same house the March 11 beating was tied to. Then, he said, the 13-year-old reported being raped while at the party.
Gallegos said police identified the rape suspect as the 15-year-old brother of the girl charged in the beating that happened the following night.
