An illegal alien who had been deported for crimes several times before going on a 24-hour drug-fueled crime spree now faces the possibility of execution. He killed two police officers.
Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes, 37, was found guilty of numerous charges including wounding a bystander and a police officer, and the murders of Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Sheriff’s Detective Michael Davis Jr. on Oct. 24, 2014.
As he left the courtroom, Bracamontes looked back and said, “I’m going to kill more cops soon.”
This was not the first such threat Bracamontes has made. During his trial, he launched into an expletive-laden rant in which he admitted killing the two officers. He then announced that he didn’t regret it, and promised that he would soon escape and kill more police officers.
Deported Four Times
Bracamontes is a Mexican citizen. He had been deported four times, three times in the 1990s, and had arrests for felony drug and gun charges in Arizona. He had been living and working in Utah prior to his deadly journey to California.Despite Bracamontes being illegal, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones told reporters he didn’t want the case to be about immigration.
“The fact that ‘s he’s an illegal alien or an undocumented immigrant whose been removed four times, that doesn’t make him evil,” Sheriff Jones said. “He is evil because he is a despicable human being who just happened to be here illegally.”
Sheriff Jones did say that the murder of Deputy Danny Oliver “highlighted some of the deficiencies” in the immigration system.
The sentencing phase will start on March 5.
Bracamontes’s attorneys tried to argue that the illegal immigrant was mentally ill and under the influence of methamphetamine and marijuana, Fox reported. But Bracamontes was judged fit for trial.
Drugs, Guns, Paranoia, Murder
According to the Sacramento Bee, for several years Bracamontes had been living quietly in a Salt Lake City suburb with his wife and his brother Hector. He worked as a painter and landscaper, while his wife managed a loan office.According to the Bee, Bracamontes and his wife started using methamphetamine in 2014. Before Long Bracamontes decided that his wife and brother were having an affair and that police were chasing him—the sort of paranoid delusions, which can accompany meth use.
Bracamontes packed his car and grabbed his wife and an AR-15 rifle, and left Utah, heading north and west.
The two stopped on the night of Oct. 23, 2014, on their way to Sacramento where they spent the night smoking methamphetamine, the Bee reported.
Early the next morning while they were by their car two deputies pulled up and asked for identification. Totally without warning, Bracamontes shot Deputy Daniel Oliver, directly in the forehead.
Bracamontes and Oliver’s partner, Deputy Scott Brown, exchanged gunfire. When Davis’s gun was empty, Bracamontes and his wife drove off, running over Oliver’s body in the process.
Bracamontes and his wife then attempted to hijack a car. The occupant, Anthony Holmes, resisted so Bracamontes shot him five times. Holmes survived.
The couple stole a different car and in short order switched cars again.
The couple headed up Interstate 80, but Bracamontes got scared when he saw flashing roadside signs telling motorists to watch out for a killer in a red pickup. Bracamontes exited the highway.
Trapped there by Placer County sheriff’s deputies, Bracamontes again opened fire with his AR-15, killing Detective Michael Davis Jr. and wounding Deputy Jeffrey Davis (not related.)
Bracamontes ran into a nearby house and later surrendered. His wife tried to hide in the truck but was captured.
