AZ’s Other Nine-Year-Old Murder Victim

By Mark R. Day

    The trial of Shawna Forde began quietly this week in Tucson. Ironically, in the shadow of the Tucson massacre, Forde is being tried for the murder of another nine-year-old girl and her father last May 29 in the border town of Arivaca, Ariz.

    Details of the double murder emerged in Tucson’s Pima County Courthouse:  Forde, a member of a Minutemen vigilante group, allegedly invaded the home of Raul Flores, his wife Gina Gonzalez and their daughter, Brisenia, with two male accomplices.

    A tall man, later identified as Jason Bush, shot Flores to death as he entered the house, prosecutors contend. He then turned the gun on the child and fired two shots into her head, killing her instantly. Next he fired at Gina Gonzalez, wounding her in the chest and leg.

    Prosecutor Kellie Johnson, her voice breaking at times, told the jury that Brisenia was sleeping in the living room because she wanted to be with her new dog who wasn’t allowed in her bedroom.

    Gonzalez testified that as she lie bleeding and listening to her husband’s fading breaths, she forced herself to lie still. “I heard Brisenia say, ‘Please don’t shoot me.” Then she heard the second shot that killed her daughter.

    After the intruders left, Gonzalez told a 911 operator about the shooting deaths of Raul and Brisenia. But in the middle of the call she shouted that the invaders had returned. Armed with her husband’s handgun, Gonzalez traded shots with her assailant, whose painful groans were audible n the 911 tape. The assailants then fled.

    Prosecutors believe that Forde and her accomplices considered Raul Flores a drug trafficker and decided to rob him to help fund their Minutemen organization.

    Defense attorneys claim that there is no solid evidence placing Forde at the scene of the crime. Though Gina Gonzalez failed to identify Forde positively, police later recovered jewelry and other possessions belonging to Gonzalez from Forde.

            Two of the suspects, Jason Bush and Albert Gaxiola, are scheduled to go on trial in the next few months. A third suspect, Oin Oakstar, was allegedly part of the murder con spiracy. He said that he turned away when Forde and her other companions decided to enter the Flores home. Oakstar said he wanted to take Flores out to the desert and kill him to eliminate his competition in the drug trade.

   Many observers believe that the Arivaca killings did irreparable harm to the Minutemen organizations as a national brand. Forde had prior convictions for prostitution and petty theft, and Jason Bush’s claim that he was a former Marine with an impressive combat record was debunked by U.S. Marine authorities.

   Most Minutemen groups had already lost credibility in recent years because of mutual accusations about misuse of funds. The Arivaca killings did further damage to their credibility.  “A lot of people felt, well, you’re a Minuteman, you’re a killer,” Al Garza, former president of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), told Gautra Bahadar of The Nation. The MCDC was the largest and most influential such group in the United States before Garza disbanded it.

   Garza has since formed a new group, The Patriot’s Coalition. He and other Minutemen have migrated to the Tea Party and support Glen Beck’s 9/12 Project as well as other right wing causes. 

   Locally, the San Diego Minutemen, crippled by lawsuits and diminishing numbers, have pulled back from harassing day laborers and rousting migrants from North County camps. The Minutemen are focusing instead on denying citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants, building more border fences and supporting other forms of anti-immigrant enforcement.

   Most recently, their leader, Jeff Schwilk, urged his followers to pressure the Temecula City Council to deny a permit for the construction of a mosque. They lost. The council voted 4-0 in favor of the mosque. 

   Meanwhile, as the trial moves forward, the mood is somber in Arivaca, Arizona. A man named Roger who works at the Mercantile Store where Brisenia and her mother shopped, would only tell La Prensa, “Everything is quiet here. Tragedies happen. We just move on.”