These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
This isn’t a fun read: It was all so unnecessary.
A group of motorcyclists was sitting outside the Kum & Go on the west side of Sioux Falls, a little before ten on a Thursday night, when a black Escalade pulled in and three people got out carrying baseball bats: a young man, an older man, and a boy. A car also pulled in and a woman got out; she told the boy to get back in the SUV. The other two men approached the motorcyclists and immediately started hitting the parked motorcycles.
Somehow, for a moment, things went from violent to verbal, and it seemed like things might be settling down.
A 26-year-old motorcyclist was talking with the older man when the young man came at him from behind and swung the bat at his head. The motorcyclist ducked the bat, drew a concealed handgun, and fired, hitting the young man in the chest.
Then he saw a woman pointing a gun at him. He fired at her, too, and hit her in the arm.1
Almost immediately, the older man swung his bat at the motorcyclist’s head. The motorcyclist fired again and hit him four times.2
The motorcyclist wasn’t hurt. He walked to the north side of the store, put his gun down on the sidewalk, put his hands on his head, and waited for the police.
The young man died there in the parking lot; the older man died at the hospital; the woman had a non-life-threatening injury.
You’re probably asking yourself the question that, I have to believe, the motorcyclist was asking himself while waiting for police: What the hell just happened? So now that we have the motorcyclist’s perspective, let’s back up.
The young man was 23-year-old Francisco Alvarez III. The older man was his father, 44-year-old Francisco Alvarez Jr., and the woman was his mother, 42-year-old Darinda Martinez. The boy was his 14-year-old brother.
Earlier that night, Alvarez III had come home limping and told his mother he’d been jumped near the house. Someone told the family that the people who did it were at the Kum & Go, about four miles away, so he, his father, and his brother got in the SUV with the bats. Nobody called the police.
Upon realizing the 14-year-old had gone with them, Martinez got in her car and followed them. When she got there, she grabbed a gun she happened to have in the car and told the boy to get back in the SUV. He apparently didn’t take part in the fight.
Then Alvarezes Junior and III started swinging — at the wrong people.
That group of motorcyclists was not responsible for that assault. They were actually in a different part of Sioux Falls when that took place, and we have that confirmed. It was basically a case of mistaken identity.
That’s police spokesman Sam Clemens.3 Traffic cameras put the motorcyclists across town when the assault happened.
The motorcyclist cooperated and wasn’t arrested. Clemens was careful the next day not to get ahead of the prosecutor, but he told Dakota News Now where it looked to him like the case was headed:
Certainly, this seems to be a case on the surface of self-defense where somebody’s swinging a baseball bat, which could be considered a dangerous weapon or deadly weapon, but that’ll be a determination that’s made by the state’s attorney’s office.
Less than three weeks later, police confirmed that the county’s top prosecutor had declined to file charges.
Martinez was arrested the morning after the shooting on three counts of aggravated assault. She was in court that afternoon, hours after her husband and son died, and her lawyer told the judge that she, too, had been acting in self-defense. The prosecutor asked for a $750,000 cash bond. The judge set it at $50,000, and she was released. She faced up to 45 years in prison if convicted on all three counts.
I don’t see news coverage of how her case turned out. There’s even a KELO article called “What is the status of 2024 homicide cases?” that mentions this incident, but it doesn’t mention Martinez.
What a waste of lives.
Sources
News
KELO ran the day-after story and two later homicide trackers. Its web story also ran on KCAU 9, and KELO radio also covered the story.
Thursday shooting: 2 dead, 1 charged (Day after)
SFPD: 2 people dead in Thursday shooting (Web story, via KCAU 9)
Sioux Falls 2024 homicide tracker: 16 homicides mapped (Year-end tracker)
What is the status of 2024 homicide cases? (Two years on)
Mistaken identity leaves two dead in Sioux Falls shooting (KELO radio)
Sioux Falls Live covered the shooting, the decision not to charge, and the year’s record homicide count. The first two also ran in the Mitchell Republic. Unfortunately, these are paywalled.
‘Mistaken identity’ leads to two shot dead at Sioux Falls gas station (Original incident)
No charges for Sioux Falls man who fatally shot father, son at gas station (No charges)
Sioux Falls police investigating 16th homicide of 2024: Where the cases stand (Year-end roundup)
Court documents identify 2 people killed in shooting at Kum-N-Go in west Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls Argus Leader, via AOL)
UPDATE: Two dead in Sioux Falls shooting (Dakota News Now)
Two dead in Sioux Falls shooting near Roosevelt High School (SDPB)
Update: Two Dead in Westside Sioux Falls Gas Station Shooting (97.3 KKRC)
Two people dead following a shooting in Sioux Falls (Hub City Radio)
2A / specialist media
Mistaken Vigilante Attack Leads to Self-Defense Shooting in South Dakota (Colion Noir)
Why You Should Call the Police: SD Family’s Vengeance Fail Ends in Their Own Demise (Doug Howlett, The Truth About Guns)
The woman told police that he started shooting at her first, so she tried to shoot back, and her gun malfunctioned. Either way, she never got a shot off.
All four wounds were in his back, which can be an issue, but there was surveillance and cell phone video of this encounter, and the police didn’t seem to raise it.
That’s his name; I double-checked. Mark Twain could not be reached for comment.
I hope that poor kid is being raised by someone who can help him come to terms with what happened and not be destroyed by bitterness himself.
Two troublemakers dead.
They assaulted animals innocent man.
Amd they died.
Good riddance.