Arvada – The first thing a frantic Carlos Rodriguez saw as he ran toward the Burger King was his wife’s white Mazda 626 in the parking lot.
Rodriguez, 34, had no idea there had been a fatal shooting at the restaurant where his wife, Annette Arraici, had volunteered to work Saturday night – a time she normally had off.
He and his wife had married two years ago and always kept in close touch by cellphone. But after she reported for the 11 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift, he heard nothing from her.
“I have nothing. I call, I call,” he said, looking at his cellphone. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“She is a very nice person,” he said of his 30-year-old wife. “I love her. She calls me all the time, and I call her.”
Rodriguez arrived at the restaurant about 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Soon after, he learned his wife was dead, killed when multiple people entered the restaurant about 3 a.m. Sunday, opened fire and robbed it. The Burger King, at 64th Avenue and Ward Road, in a pleasant northwest suburb, was surrounded by hundreds of yards of crime-scene tape Sunday as patrol officers, detectives and prosecutors processed the area.
After he was informed at the Arvada Police Department of his wife’s death, Rodri guez, who is from Mexico, was too distraught to talk about his loss.
A close friend of the couple went to the police headquarters to pick up Rodriguez. After conferring with police, she talked but asked that her name not be used.
She had lunch with Arraici on Saturday, she said, just hours before the shooting.
The friend described Arraici, who came from Honduras, as a delightful person.
“She was an outgoing person. She was making friends. She was nice and hardworking. She was always there at work,” she said.
According to the friend and Rodriguez, a store manager had asked Arraici the previous day if she would be willing to work Saturday night, a departure from her normal weekday shift. She said yes.
The friend said Rodriguez, who works in construction, was told that his wife died at the scene. She worked in the kitchen.
Susan Medina, public-information officer for the Arvada Police Department, said there was a second employee in the Burger King but that he was not injured. He was being interviewed by detectives. She said an undetermined amount of cash was taken.
Less than 100 yards from the Burger King, Casara Orr, 13, and her friend, Kristina Morrison, 14, were camping out in Casara’s backyard. Sometime between 2:40 a.m. and 3 a.m., they heard what they thought were firecrackers going off and then a scream. Then they heard the sound of cars peeling out, which they thought was caused by people drag-racing, a common occurrence in the area.
Tamara Orr, Casara’s mother, heard the commotion as well.
“I thought, ‘Why on earth are people shooting off fireworks at that hour?’ Five minutes later, I heard sirens,” she said.
Police did a thorough canvass of the area Sunday morning, and for several hours they cordoned off an area about a mile away near 61st and Welch, where police believe the killers may have discarded numerous items.
Ken Richter, who lives on Welch, said police told him the robbers apparently fled into his neighborhood, flinging black garments from a car as they drove down the street.
A black T-shirt was found on his daughter’s Jeep, which was parked in front of the house.
Neighbor Joe Rotello didn’t hear anything overnight, but he said police found a black pullover in the gutter near his house.
Joe Pennetta, who also lives on the street, said he thinks the people who targeted the Burger King must have known the neighborhood because their route indicated they were familiar with the side streets.
Many of the neighbors were shocked by the robbery, describing the area as one where crime is virtually unknown.
But police, who were still at the Burger King late Sunday, said they have no leads.
“We don’t have any information on suspects,” Medina said.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
