A tragic case of mistaken identity left two members of a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, family dead and another one facing charges after a violent confrontation at a local gas station. The incident, which took place late last week, highlights the dangers of citizens taking justice into their own hands instead of contacting authorities.
The deadly encounter began when Francisco Alvarez III, 23, returned home limping, telling his family he had been assaulted near their home on North Daisy Avenue. Fueled by anger and a desire for revenge, Francisco, along with his 44-year-old father Francisco Alvarez Jr. and 14-year-old brother, set out in an SUV to hunt down the supposed attackers after receiving a tip from a neighbor. They mistakenly believed the assailants were a group of motorcyclists gathered at a Kum & Go gas station nearby.
Darinda Martinez, Alvarez III’s mother, followed behind in her own car, armed with a handgun. When the family arrived at the gas station, they immediately confronted the group of motorcyclists, swinging baseball bats at one of them in an attempt to seek retribution for the earlier assault. However, the motorcyclists had no connection to the original incident.
As the situation escalated, 26-year-old motorcyclist Tommy Fischer drew a concealed handgun he was legally permitted to carry and fired at one of his attackers in self-defense. Alvarez III, who swung a bat at Fischer’s head, was shot in the chest and died on the scene. When Alvarez Jr. also swung his bat at Fischer’s head in response to his son being shot, he too was shot multiple times, with shots striking him in the back, and died shortly afterward at the hospital.
Martinez, still armed with her handgun, pointed the gun at Fischer, who then shot her in the arm before she could shoot him. She has since been charged with three counts of aggravated assault and was taken into custody, despite never firing a shot.
“Everything happened quickly,” Martinez is quoted in the affidavit as say, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
According to police spokesperson Sam Clemens as quoted in the Argus Leader, video footage later confirmed that the motorcyclists were not involved in the assault on Alvarez III earlier that night. Clemens emphasized that Fischer has not been charged, as laws permit self-defense in such situations, and as police arrived, he was fully cooperative, laying is firearm on the ground and putting his hands up. The case is now under review by the state’s attorney’s office.
“It was really, they misidentified the suspects. That’s really what kicked off this event, the shooting,” Clemens told Keloland news.
The incident serves as a prime reason defense attorneys and law enforcement officials all implore people who may consider seeking personal vengeance, to always go to the police first. Taking justice into one’s own hands can lead to legal consequences or, worse, unnecessary fatalities when events spin out of control as they did in this situation. A guy was jumped and suffered minor injuries, but had he called police instead of going out to hunt down his attackers, he would be home recuperating right now and safe with his family. Instead, he is dead, and his younger brother now has lost a brother and a father, while his mother sits in jail. I doubt any of them feels or would feel the attempt at revenge was worth it.
Had Alvarez III had a bat or other weapon and injured or killed one of his attackers in the commission of their attack, under law, he would have been justified in his actions. The same for Martinez. Had she drove up on the act of her son being attacked and stepped from her car and one of the attackers (or all of them), she likely, also would have been justified. But as soon as the attack broke off and the two or however many parties went their separate ways, self-defense provisions of the law cease to come into play. While Martinez or the elder Alvarez might have felt in the moment justified to defend their son who had just been shot, they were wrong since they were the ones who collectively initiated the attack on a motorcyclist who it turned out was the wrong guy any way.
When keeping it real goes wrong. Dying sucks, Dying because you are dumb sucks even harder.
“Kum & Go” ? What an unfortunately hilarious name, and sounds like a good name for a brothel too.
“…sounds like a good name for a brothel too.”
Or a “No-Tell Motel”, anyways…
That would be spelled “Cum and Go.”
Nothing good ever happens at a Kum & Go.
Well, except the one thing, obviously.
Why did the Alvarez family do this? Half the people are dumber than the average guy.
And the Average IQ of SD goes up accordingly…
Dang they’re dumb(& dead). The few times I’ve called the po-leece they were worse than useless so I can sorta understand(sounds like a gang thing🙄.
Actually, half the people are dumber than the median.
But yes, the average I.Q. of SD just went up a two ticks.
Geez. The first comment I’ve posted in a couple of weeks, and already modded and removed from the screen. TTAG has really gone downhill since the ownership transfer.
I’ve gone from a daily reader and commenter several years ago to a once-per-week visitor now. Why bother anymore…
…well, your wit is missed, Haz. At least by me.
Sure this had to have been a red ass event, but a red ass trumps a cold dead ass.
Martha Stewart : Revenge should be severed up Stone Cold & Anonymous—–make certain of your target before doing anything.
Klingons:
“Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
Kahn:
“It’s cold in space.”
“It was really, they misidentified the suspects. That’s really what kicked off this event, the shooting.”
Wrong. The desire for vengeance kicked off this event.
I mean, yeah. I’m reading the comments, and yes this was incredibly stupid. But I have two rebuttals. #1, if they would have called the police there’s a good chance not a damn thing would have been done about it. Almost 100% if you have the turds I had around where I grew up. and #2, if it would have worked (been better executed) you probably wouldn’t be hearing about it. I dunno. Just two thoughts.
#2=missing persons reports sometimes. But yeah if the police will handle it that is preferable in most cases.
Cold revenge is always a crime, never self-defense.
Hot revenge is pretty much always a crime as well it just may remove premeditated descriptors which in some states really doesn’t have much relevance (see NY). With that said we do have a fair number of missing persons that probably would be crimes if bodies or timelines could be identified.
Revenge should be on a par with the original offense. Shooting people for causing a leg limp is not appropriate.
A bucket of dawgshit tossed on the motorcycles would have been a better solution.
Mexicans. You kill one, you have to kill them all.
That would be spelled “Cum and Go.”
I came to echo the sentiment that others have stated: you cannot always count on law enforcement to find attackers and gather sufficient evidence to prosecute them. So I understand how the family wanted some kind of justice (a.k.a. “street justice” in this case).
Of course the problem with “street justice” is that you may end up targeting someone who did not actually attack you, as in this case.
My preferred solution is that you are armed, ready, and able to vigorously and effectively defend yourself from attackers–ideally sending them to the hospital where police WILL arrest them. That ensures that police get the right people AND it discourages other thugs from attacking the populace. Oh, and it also means that you probably go home with minimal injuries to enjoy a hopefully long and fruitful life.
Sounds like the whole family were a bunch of gang bangers. Mom trailed along with a pistol?
Anyways, there’s more oxygen available now for people that have a brain.
In my own situation, I discovered the hard way that the State of Oregon had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the Oregon Marijuana Mafia to expropriate the private property of innocent victims for the purposes of committing Federal felonies. The modus operandi is for marijuana growers to rent rural residential properties under residential tenancy laws. The tenants or associates then convert the property into a large scale marijuana grow. The corrupt bureaucrats of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Oregon program as well as the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission will then eagerly issue address specific marijuana grow site permits and caniboid processing licenses to the tenants or anyone else. The OMMP and OLCC will even issue expost facto permits to provide legal cover for bootleggers who get caught operating without permits. Oregon judges who are to abysmally stupid to actually read the law as well as the administrative rules policies and procedures that were adopted to implement the law will then accept such permits as evidence that the property owner was complicit in the criminal enterprise. The law has also been amended to preclude eviction for utilizing a rental property for marijuana trafficking.
To make my situation even more interesting, on the day that I discovered the unlicensed marijuana grow that was illegal under Oregon law as well as Federal law, the bootleggers attempted to distract me by inviting me to shoot the AR-15 that they had “built.”. Said firearm was a short barrelled rifle which requires a BATFE permit. Said firearm didn’t have a serial number. The third hole had also been drilled in said firearm to enable installation of auto sear. Said firearm also had a three position selector lever suggesting that it could be on safe, single shot or fully automatic. Said bootlegger had previously been convicted in a domestic violence situation in which he threatened to shoot his father with a 9mm pistol and was therefore prohibited by Federal law from possessing a firearm.
Rather than accept the invitation to shoot this obviously illegal firearm into the woods where my son was hunting, I set the gun down. I immediately thereafter looked through the open door of the 3,600 square foot barn that I observed had been converted into a marijuana grow. A person that I didn’t know was busy trimming plants.
Since I was unarmed, my response was to pretend to believe that the marijuana grow operation was licensed and legal. I then retreated from the scene and contacted my attorney and then the police. I was quickly informed that the provisions of the lease that precluded converting a property into a marijuana grow or other illegal enterprises were no longer relevant.
My attempts to evict based on “waste” and damage inflicted to the property to install the grow eventually provoked an incident in which my marijuana bootlegging tenant fired two rounds from a 12 gauge shotgun at my son. He was acquitted because Yamhill County Judge Ladd Wiles whose famously philandering, perjuring, drug addicted wife, Amanda S Marshall, had transitioned from seldom enforcing Federal law when she was the US Attorney for the State of Oregon to representing the Oregon Marijuana Mafia in her private practice. Judge Wiles who appeared to be AUII (Adjudicating Under the Influence of Intoxicants) adjudicated that my efforts to evict constituted harassment and that a 12 gauge shotgun isn’t a deadly weapon.
The bottom line is that I regret resisting my initial instinctive response to kill the marijuana bootleggers when I first discovered the grow. I also regret resisting the initial instinctive impulse to kill my tenant when they shot at my son.
Some information given in this article is incorrect.
Call the police. Why?
They take a report and end of story. They will show up after its all done.
Law Enforcement does not prevent crime they just arrest after the crime is committed.
Dead is dead and no cop ever stopped that.