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On the night of January 10, a person entered a house nestled near the forests on the northwestern border of Nevada and shot and killed 56-year-old Connie Koontz, the authorities said. Three days later, again in the dark, someone entered another Douglas County home, about a kilometer down the road, and killed Sophia Renken, 74 years old.
Three days later, the Washoe County Sheriff's deputies searched a house about 40 miles further north in La Guardia Lane. They found Gerald David, 81, and his wife, Sharon David, 80, both shot. they too were dead.
For nine days, law enforcement officials from across the region gathered to rebadure and prepare residents shaken by what prosecutors described as "brutal killings." Lock your doors and windows, said the authorities; turn on the outside lights; Keep your cell phones close at hand.
Sunday – the tenth day of regional panic – they were able to deliver soothing news: a suspect was in custody; they believed that the man, whom they identified to varying degrees as Wilbur or Wilber Martinez-Guzman, was responsible for the four homicides.
Martinez-Guzman, aged 19 or 20, was arrested Saturday afternoon in a house for burglary for crime and immigration, said Sheriff Ken Furlong of Carson City, although prosecutors added that "there is no such thing as". they intended to accuse him of death. murders. Law enforcement officials have not discussed the motive for the murders.
According to Sheriff Furlong, immigration officials have informed law enforcement officials that Mr. Martinez-Guzman was staying in the Carson City area for about a year, but that he "was probably in the United States illegally and was in detention. " The prison records show that he is under the control of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which, according to Sherif Furlong, has prevented him from being released on bail. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Four people in Nevada were violently stolen and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our country," President Trump said in a tweet on Monday. "We need a powerful wall!"
The revelation that Mr. Martinez-Guzman may be illegally in the United States has pushed the case to a set of high-profile murders that President Trump has exploited to support his arguments regarding immigration and immigration. the need for a wall along the southwestern border of the country. The dispute over the funding of such a wall remains at the center of a government ruling.
The President has already drawn attention to the murder of Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old student who, according to police, was murdered by an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. (His father called on people not to exploit his death to promote a political agenda.) Mr. Trump also stated that it was "time to crack down on border security" after the authorities arrested a man. in California in December allegedly shot dead. a police officer and had entered the United States illegally.
Meanwhile, the friends and relatives of the four Nevada victims – some of whom accompanied the police at Sunday's press conference – have been left in mourning.
Eddie England, 70, who met Ms. Renken through Carson Valley's chapter of the Carson Valley Antique Car Club, said in an interview Tuesday that four lives could have been saved if Mr. Martinez-Guzman had been expelled from the country.
He described Ms. Renken as an independent, tough woman who drove a 1930's Model A Ford. However, she moved to Gardnerville, Douglas County, a few years ago, to get closer to people – a situation that She thought she was safer, said England.
"And that," he says, "is what happened to him.
"It's hard to take."
Alan Squailia, a friend of Mr. David, described Gerald and his wife as "no-nonsense people" who were active community servants and animal lovers.
"If you needed a friend and someone helps you, it's that couple," said Mr. Squailia, 75 years old.
Looking at a picture of Mr. Martinez-Guzman, Mr. Squailia stated that he could imagine that Mr. David would have invited the young man to his home when he had sought help.
"The whole city of Reno is devastated by this," he said. "We still can not cope."
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