Former county commissioner beaten, robbed

By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP — Former County Commissioner Earnest Becenti Sr. was beaten and robbed by three males who stopped while he was fixing a flat tire on his car.

Becenti, 82, of Churchrock, was driving on Hard Ground Canyon Road Friday at 6 p.m., when one of his tires went flat and he stopped to change it about five miles south of Coyote Canyon Road, according to the police report.

While he was getting his tools out to change the tire, a red car traveling down the road stopped next to him, and Becenti said he saw three Native American males in the vehicle. The driver got out and walked up to Becenti, grabbed him by the shirt and started calling him obscene names and pushing him around, the report said.

The driver then tried to punch him in the face, but missed. The driver then threw the victim to the ground and started kicking him.

Becenti said he kept asking the driver to stop hitting him and said that he should be helping him, not hurting him. Becenti said he was able to get up, but then one of the other males grabbed him in a choke hold and started to choke him while the driver continued to punch him.

They stopped and Becenti fell on the ground. Then the suspect who was choking him picked up a rock and threw it at his vehicle, smashing one of the windows. The driver took the vehicle jack, and a shovel and a blanket and left in the red car.

Becenti then used his cell phone to call his family for help.
Becenti told police his watch was broken during the incident but he didn’t think any other property was taken.

He was taken to the hospital for a large bump on the right side of his face near his eye, an injury to his right shoulder and arm and an injury to his left elbow.

Becenti’s son, Earnest Becenti Jr., said in a telephone interview Monday morning that his father was out of the hospital and was now recuperating at home. Nothing was broken, he said, but he was “pretty bruised up.”

The suspects are described as one Native American male, 25-30 years old, 5 feet 2 inches and 140 pounds, one Native American male, 20-22 years old, 5 feet 3 inches with a red sweatshirt, and one Native American male who never got out of the vehicle and could not be described.