Family: U.S. marshals shot the wrong man

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Copyright © 2016 Albuquerque Journal

The two white trailers were on the same side of the street, a couple hundred feet apart.

Outside trailer #26, Edgar Camacho-Alvarado, 23, was working early into Saturday morning trying to fix his truck’s engine, according to his family.

Inside the other, trailer #29, was a man on the run. George Bond, 25, was wanted on a warrant for murder.

The U.S. Marshals Service hasn’t said what took place when agents rolled into the West Central mobile-home park sometime before 6 a.m. hoping to arrest Bond.

All that is certain is that Camacho-Alvarado, not Bond, was shot and killed outside his home.

New Mexico State Police, which is handling the shooting investigation, confirmed Camacho-Alvarado’s name late Sunday. Spokesman Chad Pierce said in a short press release that the shooting happened after a deputy U.S. marshal got in a “confrontation” while trying to execute the arrest warrant.

But authorities still refuse to say which agency’s officer opened fire on Camacho-Alvarado. And they have offered no explanation as to why shots were fired at him.

Some of Camacho-Alvarado’s family members were at home when he was shot and believe authorities went to the wrong trailer.

Carlos Camacho, Camacho-Alvarado’s older brother, said his mother was in bed when she heard a gunshot.

Her son was asking for help and she ran outside and cradled his head on the steps leading to the trailer, Camacho said.

“He told my mom, ‘I don’t want to die,’ ” Camacho said in an interview outside the trailer Sunday.

But he did.

After the shooting, Camacho says U.S. marshals turned to his mom and asked her a question: “What’s his name?”

Family members say his body stayed there – next to the trailer steps in front of the truck he’d been working on – for 14 more hours.

That’s because law enforcement officers began focusing on trailer #29 where George Bond was holed up. They lobbed flash bangs through the trailer’s windows until Bond and six others came out and were arrested later in the afternoon.

A search warrant return from trailer #29 shows that officers took George Bond and a cellphone from the trailer. At least one Albuquerque Police Department officer’s signature is on the warrant.

Bond was wanted in connection with the 2014 death of Charlie Davlin in Los Lunas. The case was dropped in 2015 but was reopened in late January 2016.

Authorities issued a warrant, and U.S. marshals tracked him to a Downtown-area post office on Friday. Bond managed to escape them.

It appears they knew he was at the trailer park when they arrived, but they came across Camacho-Alvarado first and he was killed.

Bullet holes labeled with markers still remain on the front door of trailer #26 where he died.

His family says he didn’t have a gun or any other weapons.

Talking about the shooting makes Camacho-Alvarado’s family members furious. His brother is particularly angry they didn’t know who Camacho-Alvarado was.

“They ask her, ‘What’s his name?’ You guys don’t know, and you’re shooting him?” Camacho asked, tearing up. “That’s the bad part, when they do bad stuff and they just hide it. They even said themselves, ‘We’re sorry.’ ”

Authorities haven’t commented on the family’s account of what happened, and it’s unclear if any video of the shooting or the operation exists.

Camacho said his 11-year-old brother saw the whole thing and police confiscated his phone.

“My little brother was the one who saw it,” Camacho said. “It’s traumatizing.”

Family members said the boy fainted when he came back home and saw the door with bullet holes in it.

Camacho said Camacho-Alvarado grew up in Albuquerque and went to Highland High School. He did mechanic and construction work and wanted to marry his girlfriend in a few weeks.

“He was really happy; he was really excited about everything,” Camacho said. “He was young; he was getting ready for life. And they just took it away.”