Delegate takes law into own hands
Begay charged after confronting burglary suspects

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation Council Delegate Omer Begay Jr.’s house was broken into March 11. Jewelry, guns, and a large saddle were stolen. Navajo Police were called and tracked the suspects and ATV tracks for 3 miles before losing the trail on a graded dirt road.

Three days later, Begay found out where the stolen property was and went to get it back. He was charged with battery after allegedly striking one of the suspects “in the knee area with an old ax handle,” and spent approximately 10 hours Saturday in the “cage” at Dilkon Police District’s holding facility.

“The police were given full opportunity to pick up the perpetrators from day one, but they didn’t do it. It took three days and then finally this happened, and now I’m the perpetrator,” Begay said. “I was the victim to begin with, and I still am the victim.”

On March 11, when the burglary call came in, Dilkon Police were tied up working other calls, according to Lt. Emerson Lee. Begay said it took nearly three hours for officers to arrive. “We told them what items were gone. They said they were going to go look and see if they could find them. They drove off and followed the tracks. When they got to a certain point, they lost the tracks, so they abandoned it.”

Begay said the investigating officer “picked up a drunk guy” along the way and had to transport him to jail. “He reassured me he would be back on tomorrow. I said, ‘OK, I’ve got to be in Santa Fe. You do your job and I won’t worry about it.’ So I did.”

When he called his wife on Friday, she told him that no one had shown up. “Saturday morning I took a look at the abandoned house beside my mom’s house, and there it was — there was a saddle there. So I took the saddle and called the cops. They said, ‘We’ll just go ahead and make note of that and give that message to Officer Harry Lee,’ the one that was investigating.”

Begay said they returned to his mother’s house and were told that one of the suspects — a relative — was “’sitting by his house with your stuff.’ We drove out there and there he was, sitting there. I confronted him and he says, ‘I didn’t do it. I didn’t take your stuff.’ He attacked me and I whacked him on the leg.”

Later, after questioning by the parents, Begay said he told them where the jewelry and gun were located. They got into Begay’s truck and drove to one house but the suspect wasn’t there. They were on their way to the second suspect’s house when they encountered police.

Lee said some calls came in to the police district from individuals who wouldn’t reveal their names. “They said there was a fight in progress, there’s a guy down, there’s a lot of multiple suspects involved. We thought it was a gang fight.

Officer Patrick Mahkewa was dispatched.”

According to Mahkewa’s report, Dilkon Police received a call around 12:05 p.m. from a person reporting a battery. The caller said the person was driving a blue Dodge dually truck with a Navajo Nation license plate.

While the officers were responding to the scene, the caller called back, stating that the person had left the area and was driving south on old Navajo Route 15.

Lee said Mahkewa was by himself when he initially encountered the vehicle. Lee was second to arrive on the scene, followed by a Navajo Ranger who happened to be in the area. Because of the unknown circumstances, Mahkewa made a high-risk stop and drew his duty weapon.

Lee arrived about three minutes later. All suspects were ordered to the ground and handcuffed. “We didn’t know it was Omer Begay Jr.,” he said.

But Begay disagrees. “We all know they got a call with my name on it and that’s the only reason why they showed up that quick. Next time you call (police), tell them a Council delegate is involved. They’ll show up real quick,” he said.

Lee said that after the initial take-down they released one adult male, “the father of one suspect, who was forcing his son to volunteer names. At the scene we witnessed some items that Omer Begay found and confiscated on his own — one was a big saddle.

“In the conclusion of that search we found a black rifle, an automatic, loaded, in the back seat behind the front passenger seat. There was a bag of ammunition — about 40 rounds — on the driver’s seat.” They also found what they thought was a walkie-talkie, Lee said, “but it was a portable scanner. They were scanning Dilkon Police frequency.”

Lee said one of the suspects in Begay’s truck told police he was taking them to his residence where a gun, taken during the burglary, was hidden. A high-caliber rifle for deer hunting was retrieved. “Come to find out, the serial number was grinded off; it was altered,” Lee said. “It’s a federal offense.”

That apparently was done after it was stolen, Begay said. “That gun is registered to me in the state of New Mexico.

Why would I want to grind the serial number off of it?”
Samson Cowboy, Navajo Police executive director, said Begay’s involvement in the incident is “understandable, but we discourage people doing that. You could be charged for that. We know it’s your property, nobody should invade your privacy, which is your home, and we understand that, but we don’t encourage people taking the law into their own hands.”

Cowboy said one suspect has been arrested and other arrests are expected. “Pending the outcome of the overall investigation, everyone is going to be charged appropriately.”

Raymond Joe, a former Navajo Police officer and member of the Public Safety Committee said Begay had told him last week about the burglary. “I told him to just let the police handle it, but evidently that never did occur.

“When somebody breaks into your house and you find out who it is and you confront them, they’ll confront you, too.

They don’t want you to take their stuff, what they stole, and you want to get your stuff back. People will assault you; you’re just going to react to it. I don’t blame Mr. Begay’s reaction.

“The only thing is Dilkon Police Department should have automatically responded to these situations. This is one of the situations that’s going on — they’re failing to respond and neglecting their responsibility. In the end, the victim gets arrested for it,” Joe said. “A lot of it I blame on supervision.”