Shootings have residents rattled

Mary Apodaca just wants all the violence to end.

Apodaca, 73, is a victim in the first of two drive-by shootings that have exploded in Clovis neighborhoods this week.

CNJ staff photo: Robin Fornoff

Mary Apodaca, 73, said she hopes police can end the violence. Her home was riddled with bullets Tuesday — the first of two drive-by shootings in as many days that have exploded in Clovis neighborhoods.

Apodaca said the house in the 1200 block of North Lea Street that she has called home for almost 40 years was riddled with at least six bullets Tuesday evening, narrowly missing her and three others including a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old.

Anthony Romo

Police accused two Clovis brothers of the shooting Tuesday and confirmed there was another drive-by shooting the next night outside the home the brothers share with their mother in the 2900 block of Horn Street.

The second attack happened just hours after one of the brothers had bonded out of jail following charges from the first shooting.

No one was injured in either shooting.

Police declined comment on the motive for the second shooting. Neighbors who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation said they believe the second shooting was payback against Anthony R. Romo, 22, and Andres Romo Granado, 18, the brothers accused of shooting up the Apodaca house.

The second drive-by shooting took place about 7 p.m. Wednesday. Police Capt. Patrick Whitney said a vehicle not owned by either brother was hit by gunfire outside their home, but declined any further comment, noting it was part of an ongoing investigation.

Christina Romo said one bullet also sailed through her kitchen window at the front of the house, but declined to discuss any further details, blaming media coverage for what she said was an obvious retaliation against one of her sons.

Andres Romo Granado

Romo and Granado face felony charges of shooting at a dwelling, resisting, evading or obstructing a police officer and assault on a police officer in connection with the first shooting spree that exploded Tuesday on Lea Street. No one has been arrested in the second shooting Wednesday on Horn Street.

Apodaca called all of it "just crazy."

"I just wish it would all stop," she said. "It's all so scary."

Apodaca said police told her the shots hitting her house were fired from a .9 millimeter handgun.

Sitting in her couch just below a quarter-size bullet hole in her living room wall, Apodaca said Tuesday was a night she will never forget.

It began, police said, about 6:35 p.m. when officers responded to a call of shots fired in the Apodaca neighborhood. Police were told Romo and Granado had pulled up in a green Honda and said they were looking for a man. When told the man they were looking for was not there, "Romo and Granado pulled out guns and started firing into the air and drove off," police said in a press release.

Apodaca said Romo and Granado were looking for her grandson, Victor Apodaca, recently released from the Curry County jail. Apodaca said her grandson told her he suspected the two thought he had snitched them out to police a couple of years ago on another matter.

The police "weren't gone 10 minutes," Apodaca said, "when my granddaughter, Misty (Apodaca) said she was going to go outside to put the (battery) charger on her car.

"She had just opened the door," Apodaca said, "and she saw the green Honda outside and spun around and shouted 'Grandma, hit the floor. Hit the floor.'"

Apodaca said bullets crashed through the front window on the east side of her home as she and Misty crawled across the floor toward the kitchen, trying to get to her great-grandchildren, ages 3 and 5, who were playing. More bullets crashed through a south window, knocking books off a shelf by the front door and striking her television, Apodaca said.

Armed with a search warrant, police later arrested the brothers outside their mother's home on Horn Street. Police said both resisted and assaulted arresting officers.

One neighbor who asked not to be named confirmed the assaults, saying "they were really fighting the officers, giving them a hard time, cussing them and swinging at them."

Romo and Granado were booked into Curry County jail Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, Granado was released after posting $6,000 bond.

Hours later, about 7 p.m., Christina Romo's neighbors heard a series of gunshots and a car speeding off.

Christina Romo said a shot came through her kitchen and others hit a car parked outside her home.

"This is all because you ... plastered the whole thing across the pages of the newspaper," Christina Romo said.

The Clovis News Journal first reported Tuesday's shooting on Wednesday, posting a police press release to its website.

Thursday's CNJ had the first printed report of Tuesday's incident.

Apodaca said she was frightened by the shootings.

"What kind of people," Apodaca said, "shoot into a person's home ... my little ones in here. One of the bullets hit my great-grandson's bedroom door.

"I hope the police catch them all and put an end to it."