Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Should ICE Agents Wear Masks? LA Mayor Bass Says No

20 hours ago

Brother of Army Ranger and NFL Star Pat Tillman Crashes Into Post Office

21 hours ago

Fresno Fire Destroys Vacant Building Near Old Fig Garden

23 hours ago

Nasdaq, S&P 500 Hit Fresh Records as Trade Talks, Tech Earnings in Focus

23 hours ago

At Least 19 Killed, Scores Injured as Bangladesh Air Force Jet Crashes Into College Campus

23 hours ago

Harvard, Trump Administration to Face off in Court Over Canceled Funding

23 hours ago

Ex-Epstein Lawyer Calls for Release of Additional Epstein Materials

2 days ago

Clovis At-Risk Missing Person Found Dead in Fresno Canal

4 days ago
Man Linked to 4 Killings Suspected of Being in US Illegally
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
January 23, 2019

Share

LAS VEGAS — A Nevada community shaken by the fatal shootings of four people over the past two weeks is grateful that the suspect is behind bars, but a motive for the crimes remains unknown.

“We couldn’t account for him Friday night, and we couldn’t predict what he would do Saturday night. It was too great a risk to the public not to make the arrest.” Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong
The case has been thrust into the immigration debate, with President Donald Trump seizing on the killings as evidence of the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall after authorities said the suspect is a 19-year-old man from El Salvador in the country illegally.
Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman from El Salvador, has been jailed in Carson City since Saturday on possession of stolen property, burglary and immigration charges. Authorities said they expect to file murder charges against him in Reno in the shooting deaths of a Washoe County couple and in Douglas County in the slayings of two women in Gardnerville.
Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said federal immigration authorities told his office that Martinez-Guzman was in the country illegally. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have details on his entry into the U.S.
The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff said, and it was too early to comment on a possible motive.
Investigators who had been tracking Martinez-Guzman considered him “an imminent threat” when they arrested him Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of a shopping mall.
“We couldn’t account for him Friday night, and we couldn’t predict what he would do Saturday night,” Furlong told The Associated Press. “It was too great a risk to the public not to make the arrest.”

Trump Has Cited Killings to Bring Attention to the Wall

Detectives had watched Martinez-Guzman go to a car wash and trash bins, raising concern that he might try to dispose of evidence connected to the slayings. He did not have a weapon when he was handcuffed, the sheriff said.

“Four people in Nevada viciously robbed and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our Country. We need a powerful Wall!” — President Donald Trump
The suspect did not yet have an attorney who could speak on his behalf, according to the sheriff.
Trump seized on the killings as evidence of the need for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.
“Four people in Nevada viciously robbed and killed by an illegal immigrant who should not have been in our Country,” Trump said Monday in a tweet. “We need a powerful Wall!”
The killings are the latest crimes Trump has cited to bring attention to the wall, which is at the center of his battle with Democrats that has shut down much of the federal government.
Since the start of his presidency, he has highlighted crimes committed by immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally, including the killing of a 32-year-old woman at a San Francisco pier in 2015. Last month, he tweeted about allegations that a man from Mexico fatally shot a California police officer.
Many academics and Trump’s critics have pushed back on the president’s narrative, citing studies that have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States.
Photo of Gerald David
This January 2019 photo shows a copy of the 2006 Reno Rodeo program with a photo of Gerald David. A man suspected of being in the U.S. illegally shot and killed several people in Nevada over the past few weeks, including David and his wife, authorities said, and the slayings added fuel to the immigration debate. On Jan. 16, 2019, the bodies of 81-year-old Gerald David, and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, were found in their home on the southern edge of Reno. (Reno Gazette Journal via AP)

The Investigation Began Jan. 10

The Nevada suspect, who was due in court Thursday, had lived in the Carson City area for about a year. His only known infraction was a speeding ticket, the sheriff said.
“We have no information this guy has ever been on anyone’s radar,” Furlong said.
The investigation began Jan. 10, when 56-year-old Connie Koontz was found dead in her home. Three days later, the body of 74-year-old Sophia Renken was discovered in her home about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where Koontz lived, authorities said.
On Jan. 16, the bodies of 81-year-old Gerald David and his 80-year-old wife, Sharon, were found in their home on the southern edge of Reno.
The two were remembered as “jovial” by Tom Cates, a longtime friend who knew the Davids through Reno’s rodeo and equestrian scene.
Cates said Gerald David used his time as the Reno Rodeo Association president in 2006 to promote a breast cancer awareness campaign by getting the group’s cowboys to show they were “tough enough to wear pink shirts.”
“You walk into a room and his presence will just command attention. He was a true leader,” Cates said.
Sharon David was “exuberant” and “bubbly” and “loved animals to the hills,” he said. She was a former director of the rodeo.
Renken belonged to an antique automobile club and was known as the friendly driver of a Ford Model A who was always volunteering to help.

Killings Had Shaken the Quiet Community

Robin Reedy, who was also in the Carson-Tahoe Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, said she was surprised to learn Renken’s age.
“I would never have known she was 74 by the way she acted,” she said.

“This does not happen around here. It’s crazy.” — Teri Bower, resident
Koontz, who worked at a Walmart and as a manicurist at a local salon, was remembered by co-workers Tuesday as a positive woman who loved wearing bright colors. Her Walmart colleagues wore memorial buttons with her picture.
She was “the only person I know that could come to work wearing lime green glasses and lime green crocs and rock it,” said Teri Bower, who works at the store.
Koontz and her daughter were best friends, Bower said, and the mother had saved up money and surprised her daughter with a trip to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday in December.
Bower said the killings had shaken the quiet community where everyone knows everyone and big news is a pending storm “or a bear running down Main Street.”
“This does not happen around here,” Bower said. “It’s crazy.”

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Fresno Unified’s Free Immunization Clinics for Students Start in August

DON'T MISS

Americans’ Confidence in Institutions Remains Low. Divides by Party Widen

DON'T MISS

Trump Releases Martin Luther King Assassination Files

DON'T MISS

Fresno County DUI Crash Kills Elderly Driver in Parked Car, Suspect Booked for Manslaughter

DON'T MISS

US Judge Sentences Ex-Police Officer to 33 Months for Violating Civil Rights of Breonna Taylor

DON'T MISS

WHO Says Israeli Military Attacked Staff Residence in Gaza

DON'T MISS

Iranian Foreign Minister Says Iran Cannot Give up on Nuclear Enrichment

DON'T MISS

RIP, Don Larson, 91: A Community Giant Who Brought Truth to Fresno Politics

DON'T MISS

Madera Teen Arrested for DUI After Passenger Killed in Crash, CHP Says

DON'T MISS

UK, France and 23 Other Nations Condemn Israel Over ‘Inhumane Killing’ of Civilians

UP NEXT

US Judge Sentences Ex-Police Officer to 33 Months for Violating Civil Rights of Breonna Taylor

UP NEXT

Brother of Army Ranger and NFL Star Pat Tillman Crashes Into Post Office

UP NEXT

How Will KVPR and Valley PBS Deal With Loss of Federal Funding?

UP NEXT

Trump Diagnosed With Vein Condition Causing Leg Swelling, White House Says

UP NEXT

Connie Francis, Whose Ballads Dominated ’60s Pop Music, Dies at 87

UP NEXT

FDA Approves Juul’s Tobacco and Menthol E-Cigarettes

UP NEXT

7.3 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Alaska Coast. No Danger to California

UP NEXT

Age Is Just a Number: 80-Year-Old Conquers Death Valley to Mt. Whitney Ultramarathon

UP NEXT

Is US Democracy Threatened? Majority of Californians, Including Republicans, Say Yes

UP NEXT

US Senator Seeks Safety Reforms After Fatal Collision Between Army Helicopter, Regional Jet

Fresno County DUI Crash Kills Elderly Driver in Parked Car, Suspect Booked for Manslaughter

14 hours ago

US Judge Sentences Ex-Police Officer to 33 Months for Violating Civil Rights of Breonna Taylor

15 hours ago

WHO Says Israeli Military Attacked Staff Residence in Gaza

15 hours ago

Iranian Foreign Minister Says Iran Cannot Give up on Nuclear Enrichment

15 hours ago

RIP, Don Larson, 91: A Community Giant Who Brought Truth to Fresno Politics

16 hours ago

Madera Teen Arrested for DUI After Passenger Killed in Crash, CHP Says

17 hours ago

UK, France and 23 Other Nations Condemn Israel Over ‘Inhumane Killing’ of Civilians

17 hours ago

Fresno Costco Project Killed by Judges Decision

17 hours ago

Don See, Navy Veteran and Beloved Family Man, Dies at 91

18 hours ago

I’m Not Leaving Measure C and COG Can’t Make Me: Brooke Ashjian

18 hours ago

Fresno Unified’s Free Immunization Clinics for Students Start in August

Fresno Unified School District is holding free immunization clinics throughout August to assist students in obtaining the immunizations nece...

28 minutes ago

28 minutes ago

Fresno Unified’s Free Immunization Clinics for Students Start in August

28 minutes ago

Americans’ Confidence in Institutions Remains Low. Divides by Party Widen

People walk by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, ahead of the presidential inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, in Washington, U.S., January 16, 2025. (Reuters File)
14 hours ago

Trump Releases Martin Luther King Assassination Files

fresno
14 hours ago

Fresno County DUI Crash Kills Elderly Driver in Parked Car, Suspect Booked for Manslaughter

Breonna Taylor’s art is seen in Jefferson Square after the announcement that the FBI arrested and brought civil rights charges against four current and former Louisville police officers for their roles in the 2020 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., August 4, 2022. (Reuters/Amira Karaoud)
15 hours ago

US Judge Sentences Ex-Police Officer to 33 Months for Violating Civil Rights of Breonna Taylor

The World Health Organization logo is pictured at the entrance of the WHO building, in Geneva, Switzerland, December 20, 2021. (Reuters File)
15 hours ago

WHO Says Israeli Military Attacked Staff Residence in Gaza

Iran's Foreign Affairs Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, attends the opening meeting of BRICS Summit, at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil July 6, 2025. (Reuters File)
15 hours ago

Iranian Foreign Minister Says Iran Cannot Give up on Nuclear Enrichment

Obituary Photo for Don Larson of Fresno
16 hours ago

RIP, Don Larson, 91: A Community Giant Who Brought Truth to Fresno Politics

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend