Posted on 07/06/2009 4:14:51 AM PDT by marktwain
A bizarre shooting in Belen leaves a former corrections officer dead, and a former Marine in jail charged with his murder. The shooting is once again raising debate over what's considered self defense.
The brother of the person who was shot and the suspect's friend each have very different opinions about what happened.
The incident happened around 10:15 Saturday night at Enchantment Propane. Evidence of a break-in was still visible on Sunday. The murder that happened in the midst of the burglary is likely going to extend a long-standing debate for years to come.
Louie Gabaldon still has a lot of unanswered questions about the death of his little brother, 29-year-old Gary Gabaldon, killed on the night of July 4.
"Gary would never steal from anybody. He's not a thief, and nobody deserves to kill anybody or shoot anybody and try to justify self-defense. You don't kill anybody, you just don't," Louie Gabaldon said Sunday.
Gabaldon says his brother was a former corrections officer.
Deputies say 38-year-old Luke Sanchez, a former Marine who served as a military policeman, was driving back to his farm in Belen when he spotted Gabaldon and another suspect stealing supplies from Enchantment Propane.
They say Sanchez called police, but also drove closer to the suspects to try to get their license plate number.
Deputies say he got too close-- Gabaldon spotted him, ran over to his car and broke the driver's side window.
David Dawson is close friends with Sanchez, and says he was just defending himself.
"They were bashing his windows in and he was screaming for them to leave him alone," Dawson said.
After a short fight, deputies say Sanchez pulled out his gun and shot Gabaldon in the head, killing him.
Sanchez remained on the scene until he was arrested.
The other suspect took off and is still on the loose. The suspect's vehicle was recovered, along with the stolen property.
Dawson told Eyewitness News 4 on Sunday, "So they've actually got him locked up right now for trying to defend himself from people bashing in his car to try and get at him."
Deputies say investigators had enough evidence to determine it was not self-defense, but murder.
Valencia County Sheriff's Deputy Chris Trujillo said, "We rely heavily upon our citizens, our residents of the county to report crimes to us. We never want them to approach these individuals, or get within close contact where something like this could occur."
Gabaldon says his brother and Sanchez, at one time, were family.
"Well I know that Luke Sanchez was the cousin of the father of my brother's ex-girlfriend, and there's more to it of this story than what's being said, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it," he said.
Friends of Sanchez say he is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday. They hope the judge will drop the murder charge. Gabaldon's family hopes that charge remains.
One of the first things taught in a serious self-defense class is that when the police show up you WILL be arrested. The cops don’t know what happened other than there’s a body on the ground; everyone remotely suspected will be stuffed into a cage until the whole thing can get sorted out.
Try to expand the mental envelope.
I did not so much bash cops...but the VERY IDEA OF POLICE.
I do not like, support, or believe in the IDEA of Police.
People are the law. What people wish is the law. A few, small number of people, with clothing and cars provided by the people at large are not in sole possession of the law.
Since time immemorial the protection of ones person and property is the duty of the individual. All else is way, way more distant and but ornamentation often supposed to be the thing itself, which it isn’t.
In, NJ, the shooter would be immediately arrested, and charged with murder. Self defense or not. NJ legal system has made it clear they do not want citizens defending themselves because guns are inherently evil. If the shooter were white, they’d probably tack on a couple o’ hate crimes charges, along with violating the perps civil rights. Oh, and if he were one of the LUCKY ones that did have a NJ CCW permit, that’d probably get revoked as well. Even if he beat the charges, they’d find a way to never give the CCW back to him. Because GUNS ARE EVIL!!!!!/s.
Someone please call the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHMBULANCE for Gary. Something tells me if he had a gun in his house, and I were the one breaking windows in his house or vehicle; I'd be pushing daisies right about now. This guy is a S.F.B., and the only reason he's spewing such pablum, is because "IT'S NOT FAIR..." that his brother was shot, and not the good samaritan. I pray the charges are dropped, and the victim sues this turd's family for the damages to the car.
Sad. Glad I live West of the Rockies.
If ADW is called for in self defense, the vehicle is legally just as much a "deadly weapon" as is the firearm. However, the vehicle has the built-in defense of, "I was just attempting to depart from the scene where I was under attack and in fear for my life"...
Property owners and assaulted persons have that information, and should not have to wait around to educated, inform, explain to another.
"An officer arriving onto the scene could be in danger of being shot.
Shooting of thieves will reduce theft, resulting in LEO being called massively less to theft, rapes, assaults, murders.
I don't know of anybody, who needs what ever it is police do. We take care of ourselves and our persons. Police show up afterwards.
Nothing of substance on the show. Plenty of the standard, family trumps law, not terribly high regard for the local sheriffs office, politics, etc...
Too ornate.
Steal=shot.
KISS.
Criminals are dumb. They understand, somehow, not to rob biker bars, cop bars.
One minute they are bad ass, night stalking master of crime, the next they are crying they are a victim of gun toting, racist, money grubbing that put property ahead of life ..bla, bla, bla.
In a proper world, x number of break ins would be divided into the police budget, with a result that if you prevented a break in the town would give you a reward of half the estimated police cost.
Incentivize and reward the citizen.
After a while the dolts would hear that so and so town pays for each scalp.
You wouldn’t have many crimes, and at way lower costs.
One thing for sure, the evidence always finds the truth, even if it takes time. There is a lot we don't know.
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Agreed.
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I basically said, "Your car is a powerful self-defense weapon."
It is a hundred fold easier to show a person to...point gun, pull trigger.
Cars, road, surface, space, obstacles, power turns, weight distribution...at night....yeah. That’s good advice for 99% of people. /snark
Even a "permit driver" knows where a car's accellerator is -- and how to stomp on it -- even if they've never even seen a real firearm.
You shoot to kill. I'll drive to escape. Guess who will be excused by a Gay State jury (even if the perp gets turned into lobster pot chum in the process...)
What murder?
Unless you mean the one the dead guy's accomplice should be charged with.
New Mexico has open carry. Only concealed carry, without a permit, is illegal.
Defense of property is perfectly legitimate as well. At least in Texas it is. Even other people's property.
And so is defending others, including your entire nation.
But this guy was not using lethal force to defend someone else's property, he was using it to defend his own person. That's legal in virtually every state.. well except a few "blue" states where retreat must be impossible before you can defend your person with potentially lethal force.
Not around here. Even in Houston they didn't cuff and stuff the guy who killed two burglars who were making off with his neighbor's property. And did so in view of an LEO. Oh they may have taken him down for questioning, but they did not charge him.
You'd think the bashed in car window would speak volumes.
Well, most of 'em do. There was the guy who broke into a Poker Palace type place near Flint Michigan last week, waving a shotgun around. Former police chief of Flint dropped him with a single round to the chest. The "mentally challenged" criminal was suspected to have robbed the same place earlier, but on a night when it wasn't occupied by a bunch of cops and retired cops.
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