Thread: POLICE RELEASE NAME OF SUSPECT IN 7-ELEVEN SHOOTING

Police release name of suspect in 7-Eleven shooting

Ramierez


Brent Gardner-Smith - Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
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Sun 07/29/2007 10:01PM MST

Basalt police have released the name of one of the two suspects in the June 26 shooting at the 7-Eleven store.

Police think Ricardo Ramirez, 23, of El Jebel used a semi-automatic M-1 carbine rifle to fire shots through the store window, into the area behind the counter where the clerks work, shortly after 11 p.m. that night. No one was injured in the shooting.

Police are looking to arrest Ramirez on felony charges. He is thought to be either in the Rifle or Meeker area and should be considered armed and dangerous.

Basalt police first obtained the arrest warrant on July 13 but did not release Ramirez's name until yesterday.

"We thought that we would try and track him down before he had knowledge of the warrant," said Basalt Police Chief Keith Ikeda. "Once he found out that he had a warrant, we thought he probably would elude contact with police. But since we haven't been able to contact him, we are asking the public to notify us if they have any information."

Police said they found an M-1 rifle in Ramirez's El Jebel home on July 11 and that three 30-millimeter shell casings found at the 7-Eleven after the shooting were consistent with the type of ammunition typically used with an M-1 rifle. The rifle has since been sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for "latent print examination" and ballistics testing.

Police have issued a wanted poster with Ramirez's picture and photos of his 1996 gold or tan Honda Civic with license plate number 070ESN. The car is said to closely resemble the description of the vehicle leaving the scene of the shooting.

Ramirez is a Hispanic male who is said to be 5'7" and weighs 200 pounds. He has brown eyes and very short black hair. He also has a tattoo on the upper left part of his chest.

He is wanted on the charges of criminal attempt at first-degree assault and felony menacing. The charges carry a $500,000 bond.
Ikeda said Ramirez has a prior police record and was once booked into the Garfield County Jail. Police said they traced Ramirez in part through credit card records.
The shots fired that night were thought to have come from a car that was seen speeding away from the scene.

Earlier that evening, two men exchanged words with a store clerk, Bruno Kirchenwitz, and then drove off. Kirchenwitz was apparently known by the men for wearing a hat that said "U.S. Border Patrol" on it and for expressing negative opinions about illegal workers in the United States.

Kirchenwitz is now thought to be living in Silt. He told police that he had not seen Ramirez before he spoke with him at the 7-Eleven store.

Kirchenwitz has also become something of a folk hero on Internet Web sites that focus on immigration reform, especially on sites that tend to take a conservative hard line against amnesty for illegal workers in the U.S.

Ikeda said that Ramirez was last known to have worked as an oil field worker in Meeker and he wasn't sure if he had ever worked locally. He also didn't know if Ramirez was a U.S. citizen or whether he was in the country working legally or not.

Ikeda said Ramirez was married but he wasn't sure if his wife was still in the El Jebel area.

Basalt police have spoken with one of the men they were first looking for. He lives in Basalt and has not been charged or arrested.

Police say they are still investigating whether he was in the car when the shooting occurred.

"We're still trying to develop as strong a case as we can," said Ikeda, adding that police are working on the case every day. "As long as we get information about the shooting and his whereabouts or any connection with the first person of interest, we will follow those leads."

bgs@aspendailynews.com

http://www.aspendailynews.com/article_20929

He is wanted on the charges of criminal attempt at first-degree assault and felony menacing. The charges carry a $500,000 bond.
Ikeda said Ramirez has a prior police record and was once booked into the Garfield County Jail.

...so he had a PRIOR conviction record. Wonderful. Even if he's not an illegal alien (which he most certainly is), he still could have and should have been deported even if he was granted legal residency. Another failure of our local police not identifying illegal aliens in their custody and chalk up another defect in our Immigration Control system.

He also didn't know if Ramirez was a U.S. citizen or whether he was in the country working legally or not.

...should we expect any different answer from an idiotic police chief who has a "don't ask, don't tell Policy"?

Suspect ID'd in Border Patrol cap shooting
7-Eleven clerk targeted for opposition to illegal aliens

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Posted: July 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern



© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Bruno Kirchenwitz (Courtesy Aspen Times)

Authorities in Colorado say they have issued an arrest warrant for a man suspected of shooting at a 7-Eleven store because the clerk had worn a cap – while off-duty – supporting the U.S. Border Patrol.

The clerk, Bruno Kirchenwitz, who alleges he then was fired over the incident related to his opposition to illegal aliens, already had left the building and was unhurt in the shooting. Another cashier who was on duty and several customers were unhurt.

But authorities in Basalt, where an estimated 75 percent of the convenience store's customers are Hispanic, have named Ricardo Ramirez, 22, as a suspect on counts of first-degree assault and felony menacing for the June 26 attack.

Basalt police chief Keith Ikeda confirmed the name of the suspect, and police said they are working on the assumption the gunfire was in retaliation for the Border Patrol cap the clerk wore to protest illegal immigration.

Basalt police said Ramirez made a purchase at the store with his credit card, then allegedly returned with another man after a few minutes to pump five shots at the store.

Kirchenwitz, 54, an immigrant from Germany, said he wore his cap while off-duty, and often has complained that illegal aliens undercut wages for other workers.

Corporate officials said they dismissed him shortly after the shooting when an internal review raised their concerns about his conduct. However, officials declined to elaborate, saying their corporate policy bars disclosure of personnel matters.

The announcement came shortly after the two store customers confronted Kirchenwitz over his hat, and then a series of rifle shots blasted through the store's window in front of the cashier's station.

Kirchenwitz has continued to insist he was dismissed for exercising his free-speech rights. He recently passed a lie detector test, paid for by Denver's KHOW radio, that indicated he didn't instigate the clash with the two men.

Ikeda also reported a car, 1996 tan Honda sedan with Colorado license plates, was reported leaving the area, and three shell casings for .30-caliber bullets, used for an M-1 carbine rifle, were found near the store.

Authorities said Ramirez' name arose during interviews with witnesses.

Kirchenwitz said the two men who confronted him came into the store and asked if he was the man who wears a U.S. Border Patrol baseball cap.

Kirchenwitz acknowledged he wears the cap to and from work but never on the job.

The men, he said, threatened him with something like, "We're going to show you what we think of that hat when we catch you alone."

Kirchenwitz told the Aspen Times he "smiled and laughed and made jokes, then shooed them out the door."

The men said they would wait outside while he finished his shift, but they left a short time later, at about 9:30 p.m., said Kirchenwitz, who got off duty at 10 p.m. then caught a bus. The shots were fired a short time later.


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=56925

Basalt police said Ramirez made a purchase at the store with his credit card,

...dimes to donuts, I'll bet he has a Bank of America credit card.

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