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