Don't Mistake These Teens For Those Stealing Beer

[Scott Campbell]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9835900?source=rv

Devastated family buries girl killed in drive-by gang shooting
By Melinda Rogers
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 07/10/2008 06:08:29 AM MDT



Maria Santos collapsed and screamed as the casket of her 7-year-old daughter Maria Del Carmen Menchaca was lowered into the ground on Wednesday.
"Mi hija!" the Salt Lake City woman wailed as friends and family kept her from falling to the ground. She clutched a photograph of the slain child to her heart as her body shook with sobs.
The girl's coffin was placed only a few feet away from where an older cousin was buried after he was gunned down in October.
Maria's cousin, Jorge Rafael Menchaca Pimentel, was kidnapped and murdered Oct. 24 in Mexico. His family brought the 18-year-old back to Utah to be buried in Murray's Elysian Burial Gardens, said his sister, Laura Menchaca of Salt Lake City.
Friends and family stopped to leave flowers on Maria's casket during her burial Wednesday, then walked to place flowers at the grave of her cousin.
They contemplated how their family had arrived at the intersection of violence twice in less than a year.
"She was just a really nice girl. She didn't deserve what they did to her," said Laura Menchaca. After watching her cousin's casket lowered into the ground, she cried over her brother's gravestone, upon which someone had placed an LA Raiders hat shrouded by a blue bandana.
Maria's brutal shooting is reminiscent of Jorge's murder a year ago, Laura Menchaca said.
"It's the same thing," she said. "They came after him and they just killed him."
Police say Maria was the unintended victim of a drive-by shooting near her Glendale neighborhood home. She was hit by a bullet fired from a passing black sport utility vehicle Sunday as she played near 800 West and 100 South. Three teenagers and a 20-year-old were arrested in connection with her murder, which police have categorized a gang-related dispute.
Maria's uncle, Rafael Menchaca, said the family is overwhelmed with grief over losing Maria - a girl who delighted in school, loved to draw and enjoyed playing with siblings and cousins who were always around.
Rafael Menchaca said his brother's family does not know the people arrested in Maria's shooting.
During Maria's funeral Mass on Wednesday, the Rev. Eugenio Yarce said the youngster's premature death should serve as a catalyst for the community to stop violence.
"It wasn't necessary, her sacrifice," Yarce told a congregation at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Salt Lake City.
"We have to pray to work for unity and peace among us."
mrogers@sltrib.com

[Scott Campbell]

http://www.sltrib.com/columnists/ci_9835924

Drive-by instills its goal: fear
By Rebecca Walsh
Tribune Columnist
Article Last Updated: 07/10/2008 12:57:55 AM MDT



Two halves of a modern immigration story collided Sunday night: the Mexican gangster and his 7-year-old victim.
Maria Del Carmen Menchaca "Mari" was collateral damage in Frank Benavidez's alleged scheme to terrorize another gang member.
Police say the teenage shooter who Benavidez chauffeured in a swanky SUV missed his fleeing target - possibly a member of the little girl's extended family. But a single bullet found Mari on her way home from a birthday party. And in the end, the gangsters got what they wanted anyway - a neighborhood cowering behind closed doors.
Frightened Glendale residents, the Minutemen and gun-rights activists will use Mari's death for their own purposes: to justify demands for more west-side police patrols, to add to calls for forced deportation of undocumented immigrants or to hold off restrictions on gun ownership.
And some of them may be right. It would be a fitting tribute if the little girl's death resulted in an all-out campaign to dismantle Utah's gangs, Mexican and otherwise.
But for the moment, the pathos of the story strikes me, the eerie, maddening fatefulness of it all - a little girl seeking a better life in America walking into the wrong place at the wrong time and the path of a man who is just wrong, who only seeks mayhem in "el norte."
Police know Benavidez well. Two years ago, he pleaded guilty to felony counts of assault and "discharging a firearm from a vehicle or a highway" (another drive-by). Two other assaults and three other gun charges were dismissed. In another case, he attacked a woman and stole her purse. This time, the getaway car was driven by a man convicted in the shooting death of a Glendale hairdresser last summer. Benavidez was deported in July 2006, but he evidently came back for more.
According to the Washington-based Violence Policy Center's six-month survey "Drive-By America," nearly half of all drive-by shootings between July 2006 and December 2006 were gang-related. One out of four victims were under 18. And more than half were shot at home - including an 8-year-old girl playing video games in her grandmother's house in Jacksonville, an 11-year-old girl running through the spray of an open fire hydrant in Queens and a 90-year-old woman sitting in her home in Dayton. California led the nation with 115 drive-bys. During the same period, Utah logged just five - the same number as New Mexico, Oregon and South Carolina.
"What was striking to us was the scenario of people living their lives - celebrating a birthday party, having a picnic - and having it disrupted by gunfire with unintended victims falling to the bullets," says Josh Sugarmann, the center's director.
Mari was buried Wednesday next to her cousin, who was kidnapped and murdered last year in Mexico.
"These are reckless hoodlums driven by drugs and sex," says Sid Casillas, director of West Valley City's community center, which runs the anti-gang Project 180. "Once you join a gang, you have put your entire family in danger. If you live in a home, they'll shoot at that home and not think another thing about it."
Utah gang experts don't expect any remorse, any second-guessing among Benavidez's brothers in arms.
"Gang members want people to fear them," says Deputy U.S. Marshall Rick Simonelli, a member of the metro gang task force. He wasn't working Sunday night, but said drive-by shootings generally are about intimidation or gang initiation. "The whole neighborhood is afraid now."
Wrong victim. Same result.
walsh@sltrib.com

[mraynrand]

Re: Don't Mistake These Teens For Those Stealing Beer

she cried over her brother's gravestone, upon which someone had placed an LA Raiders hat shrouded by a blue bandana.

There's no respect for the dead these days.

[Scott Campbell]

Police know Benavidez well. Two years ago, he pleaded guilty to felony counts of assault and "discharging a firearm from a vehicle or a highway" (another drive-by). Two other assaults and three other gun charges were dismissed. In another case, he attacked a woman and stole her purse. This time, the getaway car was driven by a man convicted in the shooting death of a Glendale hairdresser last summer. Benavidez was deported in July 2006, but he evidently came back for more.

Well Harlan, thank God "murderin" Joe Horn wasn't there to rob these convicted teenage felons of yet another rights protected day in court. You can rest easy, because these illegal immigrants will be treated fairly. In Utah were not like those hillbilly redneck bigots down in Texas. After all, they could have just been teens stealing beer. Maybe you could set up some kind of relief fund for these poor teens, because for some reason our dead 2nd grader seem to be hogging all the sympathy.

Harlan, you'll be happy to know that the police did their job and drew a lovely chalk line around her lifeless little body.

[mraynrand]

Police know Benavidez well. Two years ago, he pleaded guilty to felony counts of assault and "discharging a firearm from a vehicle or a highway" (another drive-by). Two other assaults and three other gun charges were dismissed. In another case, he attacked a woman and stole her purse. This time, the getaway car was driven by a man convicted in the shooting death of a Glendale hairdresser last summer. Benavidez was deported in July 2006, but he evidently came back for more.

Well Harlan, thank God murderin Joe Horn wasn't there to rob these convicted felons of yet another rights protected day in court. After all, they could have just been teens stealing beer. I'm told that the police did a wonderful job of putting a chalk line around her little lifeless body.

Jesus, Scott, you're killing me here. These stories are pretty hard to take.

[Freak Out]

Re: Don't Mistake These Teens For Those Stealing Beer

she cried over her brother's gravestone, upon which someone had placed an LA Raiders hat shrouded by a blue bandana.

There's no respect for the dead these days.

Thank you Ayn....that made my morning.

So now were onto drive by shootings? Did someone offend us by saying we should not defend ourselves against these thugs as well? I have a weapon that can penetrate even the mighty panels of a lowered muscle car.

[Scott Campbell]

Re: Don't Mistake These Teens For Those Stealing Beer

Did someone offend us by saying we should not defend ourselves against these thugs as well?

No - not yet anyway. I interpolated these thoughts from Harlan, because he's so fond of doing the same thing for us. You know, how we don't care about her because she's only a Mexican and stuff. And exploiting gruesome headlines and starting stupid polls just to assert his moral superiority, and hiding behind the ruse of starting "meaningful dialogue". Yeah, right. Now smother liberally (pun intended) with copious doses of race baiting, absurd accusations of cold blooded murder, and silly comparisons to the OJ jury. And once everyone has weighed in with their meaningful dialogue, simply dismiss the contributions of all the little people because "they really haven't given it much thought". And what do you end up with? The prototypical Harlan thread.

Nice, ain't it Harlan?

[Harlan Huckleby]

bump

[twoseven]

Re: Don't Mistake These Teens For Those Stealing Beer

I have a weapon that can penetrate even the mighty panels of a lowered muscle car.

Sounds like an 88 magnum.

[sheepshead]

Does the poll suggest vigilante style revenge? Just askin'

[Freak Out]

Re: Don't Mistake These Teens For Those Stealing Beer

I have a weapon that can penetrate even the mighty panels of a lowered muscle car.

Sounds like an 88 magnum.

375 HH Magnum with Safari Grade FMJ. I used to have an older Weatherby 460 but I never shot it so ended up selling it. It was just a monster to shoot.

[retailguy]

Do we really need a trial? Can't we just gas them today?

[Scott Campbell]

Does the poll suggest vigilante style revenge? Just askin'

Not really. It was meant to suggest that Harlan is a douchebag, though the parody was very subtle and it would be easy to miss.

[Little Whiskey]

Re: Don't Mistake These Teens For Those Stealing Beer

I have a weapon that can penetrate even the mighty panels of a lowered muscle car.

Sounds like an 88 magnum.

375 HH Magnum with Safari Grade FMJ. I used to have an older Weatherby 460 but I never shot it so ended up selling it. It was just a monster to shoot.

i believe a 9 mm would do the trick and you would still have your shoulder left. they would also know they were hit, instead of an instant black out.

[Freak Out]

Re: Don't Mistake These Teens For Those Stealing Beer

I have a weapon that can penetrate even the mighty panels of a lowered muscle car.

Sounds like an 88 magnum.

375 HH Magnum with Safari Grade FMJ. I used to have an older Weatherby 460 but I never shot it so ended up selling it. It was just a monster to shoot.

i believe a 9 mm would do the trick and you would still have your shoulder left. they would also know they were hit, instead of an instant black out.

I almost bought an 8mm magnum once but had to many guns already so opted not to do so. I've heard it's a fine, powerful hunting caliber.