ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. – The 13-year-old boy killed in a double shooting in Englewood last Sunday was an “easy target” for a group of friends looking to buy drugs and then rob the victims at gunpoint, according to arresting documents obtained by Denver7 Friday.
Jesus Perez-Medrano, 19, told Englewood police he drove his mother’s white 1998 Chevrolet Impala to the area of Promise Park in Littleton to pick up his friends the afternoon of July 14, where they discussed setting up a drug deal with an “easy target” and then robbing the victims at gunpoint for money.
Perez-Medrano and his friends would agree to buy 30 tabs of LSD/acid for $250 from 18-year-old Bleu Wilson and a 13-year-old boy in the alleyway near the intersection of S. Bannock St. and W. Jefferson Ave, according to an affidavit.
After agreeing to the transaction, 19-year-old Perez-Medrano, along with three of his friends – all 17 years of age – drove to the alley for the deal where they met Wilson and the 13-year-old, who would be the one making the transaction.
Once in the alley, the 13-year-old got in the back of the vehicle driven by Perez-Medrano and met with one of the suspect’s friends, who pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and held it in close proximity to the 13-year-old boy’s chest, according to the affidavit.
The documents state the boy then grabbed the handgun and pulled it away from the guy holding it before getting out of the car through the right rear door. Another friend of Perez-Medrano, who was outside of the vehicle, saw this and pulled out a 9 mm handgun, firing two times through the left rear window.
That suspect then told Perez-Medrano he thought he saw Wilson try to pull up his shirt and pull something shiny from his waistband, at which point he fired his gun at Wilson, hitting him in the neck, the affidavit states.
Perez-Medrano got out of the car and picked up the .45 caliber handgun which laid next to the 13-year-old’s body. Another guy in the group then picked up the 9 mm handgun and ran away from the scene, according to the probable cause statement.
That friend would later tell Perez-Medrano he wrapped the handgun and hid it under a rock near the alley before coming back for it and leaving the scene of the crime for good.
Perez-Medrano eventually drove off from the alleyway and tried to pick-up his friend but could not find him.
The 19-year-old then drove the car to a dirt parking lot near Littleton High School, where the group cleaned the broken glass out of the white Impala, arresting documents show.
At the scene, police found the 13-year-old dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the chest as well as Wilson, who was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the neck, where he remains in critical condition.
The affidavit then states that a day later, on Monday, July 15 at around 6:38 p.m., a lieutenant with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office saw a vehicle matching the description of the car driven by Perez-Medrano and stopped the driver of the vehicle, who turned out to be the suspect’s mother, 40-year-old Maria Medrano. During the traffic stop, she told the lieutenant she was a cleaning lady and that the car belonged to her boss, who let her use the vehicle so she could drive to other house cleaning contracts, according to the affidavit.
She was taken into custody for driving without a driver’s license and for not having proof of insurance.
In an interview with law enforcement, Medrano said her son, Perez-Medrano, had been involved in a fight on Sunday and that the rear passenger side window had been broken out. She also gave authorities her home address so they could follow up in their investigation.
The next day, detectives went to her home and saw Perez-Medrano and another man leave in a white Chevy Tahoe, which officers followed and subsequently stopped.
Inside, they found 39-year-old Jose Perez, the father of Perez-Medrano, and the suspect, who was taken into custody by the Englewood Police Department for questioning, where he said that after the group had cleaned out the Impala following the deadly shooting, he drove it back to his home. When questioned about the .45 caliber handgun, Perez-Medrano told police he no longer had possession of the gun, and that he didn’t know where it was.
Perez-Medrano was later booked into the Arapahoe County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder, where he remains jailed without bond.
The three other juveniles were also arrested in the case. Their identities, as well as the charges they are facing in connection to the crime, where not immediately released.
