3 killed by rocks are ID’d,
Man sought in shooting is arrested

Jessie Gutierrez Arrested in connection with shooting

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — A Gallup man, sought after in a Monday drive-by shooting was arrested without incident Thursday afternoon. Police also released the names of three people who were found dead on a Gallup hillside late Monday afternoon.

Jessie Gutierrez, 20, was being sought in connection with an incident that occurred near Eighth and Aztec streets when he fired several shots at a car. The car was occupied by a man, woman and four children when the shooting occurred.
No one was injured and the driver gave police Gutierrez’s name, saying that the shooting was because of a dispute over property.

Lt. Rick White, a Gallup Police detective, said police received a tip in the early afternoon that Gutierrez was staying in the Stagecoach area at the Sagebrush Apartments.

Police went to the building, found Gutierrez and arrested him on six counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of attempted murder with a firearms enhancement.

In the hillside case, White said police have been able to confirm the identities of the three victims.

They are: Randolph Begay, 44, and Elvera Yazzie, 38, both of Navajo, N.M.; and Phillip Benally, 61, of Shiprock.
All three had died on July 11 while resting on a hill north of the Rio West Mall. Their death occurred when a rainstorm that day loosened rocks above them on the hill, causing boulders to fall down on them.

White said police are still waiting for results from the Office of the Medical Examiner but so far there is nothing to contradict that the deaths were the result of an unfortunate accident.