Raul Gomez-Garcia admitted he shot Denver officer Donald “Donnie” Young, after initially denying he had shot the detective, his girlfriend told a Denver jury today.
Sandra Rivas, 20, said that Gomez-Garcia said two words to her after making the admission: “Forgive me.”
Rivas, who has been variously described by lawyers in the case as either married to, or the common-law wife of, Gomez-Garcia, simply described him as “the father of my daughter.”
“He told me he didn’t want to kill him, he just wanted to scare him,” Rivas told the jury in the fourth day of Gomez-Garcia’s second-degree murder trial.
During Rivas’ testimony, Gomez-Garcia, 21, buried his head in his hands and wept, wiping his tears with a tissue.
Gomez-Garcia is also accused of attempted first-degree murder of Denver Detective Jack Bishop in the shootings at a baptismal party in the early hours of May 8, 2005, at the Salon Ocampo social hall, 1733 W. Mississippi Ave.
Young died within seconds of being hit by three bullets; Bishop survived.
Rivas said that she and Gomez-Garcia had been invited to an invitation-only party the night of the shooting. She said that after an hour at the party, Gomez-Garcia said he was going to go outside to meet other members of the Rivas family and would be back shortly.
She said he never came back. Later, he told her that Young had refused to let him back in although he had family inside.
She said Gomez-Garcia said Young grabbed him by the throat and pushed him over a railing outside the hall.
Earlier today, Leopoldo “Leo” Rivas, Jr., Sandra’s brother, testified that he had met Gomez-Garcia at the hall. When they tried to enter, they were turned away.
He said that Young grabbed Gomez-Garcia by both the arm and the throat, pushed him over a railing, and began choking Gomez-Garcia.
After leaving, Gomez-Garcia and a group of his friends went to a pool hall. There, Leo Rivas said, Gomez-Garcia said, “We should go and shoot the cop.”
Eventually, Leo Rivas said, he got into a car with Gomez-Garcia, they drove to the hall and sat in front for a few minutes. Gomez-Garcia then parked the car a block away, left for a few minutes, came back, and asked Rivas to drive.
Sandra Rivas said that she repeatedly confronted her boyfriend later that night about whether he was the shooter.
Initially, he said he didn’t shoot the officers, claiming he had been playing pool. She said that when she asked him to swear he wasn’t the shooter, he refused to do that. He then broke down and admitted he fired the gun.
She said that on the morning of May 9, 2005, she saw Gomez-Garcia and Jaime Arana Del-Angel, a family friend who lived with the Rivas family, pack and leave town.
Also testifying today was Selena Nunez, 18, who said she saw Gomez-Garcia go into the social hall twice earlier in the evening and return a third time later.
The third time was when the shootings occurred, she said.
“He (Gomez-Garcia) walked in and pulled a gun and started shooting,” Nunez testified. “He pulled the gun from his pocket.”
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
