Odiceo Valencia wanted to see his daughter on this most special day.
Eight-year-old Graciela was making her first Holy Communion on Saturday. But Valencia could not see her because there was a restraining order barring him from the family’s Montbello home.
Valencia, 45, and his wife, Altagracia Medina, had been separated for about four months, and he no longer lived at the home.
The family was celebrating the Catholic rite of passage with food and drink in the garage.
Valencia called the house Saturday afternoon asking his 16-year-old daughter, Carolina, if he could come over.
Carolina told him “no.”
Awhile later, he called back, and this time Carolina told him he could come visit.
He had a few beers at the house, Carolina said. But he was not threatening, she said. Then he became angry with a friend who was at the house.
Apparently, the frustration of being separated from his family also took its toll, she said.
So Valencia grabbed a knife from the kitchen.
“He told us he was going to kill himself because without us he was nothing,” a tearful Carolina recalled Sunday evening.
Holding the knife in his right hand, he cut his wrist.
“He was losing a lot of blood,” Carolina said.
The family called police, fearing for Valencia’s life. At some point, he got a bigger knife, then left the house. By the time he returned, police had arrived at the house.
Facing off with Valencia in the street in front of the home, police pointed their guns at him, telling him to put down the knife. Officers said he would not release the knife and started screaming. Police then fired a Taser gun at him and also used Pepperballs.
Everything was happening so fast, Carolina said.
“They shot him once, and he dropped the knife,” she said. “Then they shot him seven more times, and he fell to the ground.”
At least one other version of events has been offered by eyewitnesses, and police say they will investigate all accounts.
The Jalisco, Mexico, native had moved to the United States when he was in his 20s. He and his family lived in California before coming to Colorado and settling in far northeast Denver about 10 years ago.
Sunday evening, family and friends gathered outside the home to try to understand what had happened. They recalled a hardworking husband and father who worked as a security guard at night and installed insulation during the day.
“There was no need to kill him,” Carolina said. “Maybe we did the wrong thing by calling the police.”
When asked how she will remember her father, Carolina said: “I’ll always remember them shooting him, and then he fell to the ground.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
