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.
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