Officials: Arrest warrants served on three juveniles

CLOVIS — Officials said arrest warrants have been served on three juveniles, and another warrant has been issued for an 18-year-old, in connection with a May 14 shooting that injured one and left another dead from a subsequent car accident.

As of Saturday morning, the only warrant for an adult charged in the case is for Xavier Lucero, 18, who has not been arrested. Lucero faces seven felony charges, including first-degree murder, shooting at or from a motor vehicle, and aggravated assault.

Five warrants have been issued in the case, Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover told The News on Friday — the warrant for Lucero, warrants for three juveniles and another juvenile warrant that has since been pulled; "He gave us an alibi; we are still investigating the alibi and felt it was more prudent to wait," Stover said.

Stover said it is his understanding two of the juveniles were arrested in California.

Juvenile court records are not made public. All three of the warrants that have been served to the juveniles include a felony murder charge, Stover told The News.

Records filed late last week did identify the teenager who died in the violence as Ricardo Gonzales, who was 16. Officials had previously declined to identify the victim, citing the ongoing investigation.

Stover directed further inquiries to the Clovis Police Department. Messages sent to the CPD by The News were not immediately returned.

According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Curry County Magistrate Court:

• Police responded to Plains Regional Medical Center just before midnight on May 14 in reference to a car crash victim and a related gunshot victim. A witness at the hospital said the car crash stemmed from an argument that started at a party on the 1200 block of Brady Street and continued at the railroad tracks on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

• The witness said two vehicles — a Dodge truck and a Mercedes sedan — were waiting for the train when a gray sedan pulled up behind both. Multiple people came out and started shooting at both vehicles. One subject was hit by gunfire, and another was injured in a crash as they attempted to flee. A search of the site resulted in the discovery of 31 shell casings from at least three different firearms.

• The driver of the Dodge truck, Miguel Reyes, was struck by a round, treated at University Medical Center in Lubbock for a shattered scapula and later released. The driver of the Mercedes, Daniel Rivera, fled the scene on a railway service road and crashed into a utility pole. Gonzales, a passenger in the Mercedes, later died at PRMC; he did not have any gunshot wounds.

• In subsequent interviews, Lucero and others were identified as shooters.

Stover said it was not clear what started the argument, noting different witnesses have given different reasons and one or all of them may be true. He implored anybody with information to contact the CPD.