Gunshots hit near school days before students wounded

Copyright © 2011 The Monitor

NEAR EDINBURG — The gunshots came from the woods, popping clouds of dust into the air as they landed near the schoolyard.

Teachers and students who saw and heard the shots alerted Harwell Middle School leaders of the gunfire. Hidalgo County deputy constables and sheriff’s deputies backed up Edinburg school district police at the scene.

It’s an incident reminiscent of the Dec. 12 gunshots that sent two boys to the hospital.

But those gunshots didn’t come after the .30-caliber rounds that left 13-year-old Nicholas Tijerina paralyzed from the waist down.

They came less than a week before the incident.

“There was nothing done to warn people,” said a law enforcement official familiar with both shooting investigations. “Nothing was done.”

The official requested anonymity because he lacks authorization to comment on an ongoing investigation of the shooting that put Tijerina and Amaro Edson, 14, in the hospital, where they remained Monday.

But the official said if Edinburg school leaders acted after the first incident of gunfire, which left no one injured, tragedy could have been avoided.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Misael Tijerina of coping with his son’s attack. “I just get a knot in my throat and start crying.

“They’re kids and they’re innocent and not at fault. And it shouldn’t have happened, but it did happen.”

School administrators said they did not publicize the first incident because no bullets were recovered.

Edinburg schools Superintendent Rene Gutierrez confirmed the first report of gunfire outside Harwell Middle School and Avila Elementary when reached Monday.

He refused to divulge details or documents detailing the incident, citing an ongoing investigation and possible litigation against the district.

“I’m going to say it was fully investigated by the police department,” Gutierrez said. “There was no conclusive evidence of bullets.”

Despite what the law enforcement official told The Monitor, Gutierrez maintained Edinburg school district police “followed through immediately” on the first episode of gunfire.

Sheriff’s deputies and deputy constables responded to the first shooting incident, but left the case with the school district because no injuries occurred.

The official said Edinburg school district police did not take an incident report after the first report of gunshots outside the school campuses. Such reports are standard procedure for police departments investigating possible crimes.

Sheriff’s investigators asked school district police for a copy of their report after the first shooting, but were told the report didn’t exist, the official said. Then school district police provided a copy of a report detailing the first round of gunfire — backdated to when it occurred.

The Sheriff’s Office accepted the report only after they told the school district to submit a new report with the correct date of when it was written — after the second incident that left Tijerina and Edson injured.

“Oh my God,” Gutierrez said. “I’m not aware of any of that. You know, there’s a lot of rumors going around and that’s another rumor, I guess.”

Gutierrez acknowledged, however, that gunshots have been reported in the past near the school. He said they can be heard from “two or three miles away.”

“I’m not very familiar with hunting,” he said. “I’m not very familiar with that area.”

Others familiar with the area around the school, however, say echoes of gunfire are a regular occurrence in the fall, when hunting season opens.

“The shots, you hear them all the time here,” said Andy Reyes, 72, whose two young stepsons attend Avila Elementary, just across the street from his home. Reyes said even he joins in hunting in the neighborhood near his house, but he doesn’t shoot toward the school.

“The mistake is they didn’t tell anybody,” Reyes said of school district leaders’ not informing anyone about the first round of possible shots near the school. “They made a mistake until something happened.”

But parents and students were not the only ones not told about the first reported gunfire. Some school board trustees were left in the dark, as well.

“This is the first I hear of it and it’s unfortunate that I heard it from a newspaper reporter,” trustee Robert Peña Jr. said. “If you have to solicit your police department along with our community’s (police) and the sheriff's department, obviously the incident merits attention. Why it wasn't given that attention and reported to us is beyond me, but the superintendent has to answer to that.”

The Edinburg school board’s next regular meeting is set for Jan. 3. School leaders have proposed building an earthen or concrete barrier surrounding part of the school campuses to block future gunshots.

Sheriff’s deputies continue to investigate the shooting that hospitalized the two boys.

Two men adjusting rifle sights were released from custody the day after the shooting. David Guerrero Navarro, 26, an illegal immigrant found on land near the school, was charged with poaching and trespassing, but is not suspected to be the gunman who shot the two boys.

Investigators executed search warrants on property to the west and north of Harwell Middle School, mostly a tangle of mesquite trees and ranchland. Deputies also uncovered what appeared to be an undercover marijuana cultivating operation on land near the school; that part of the case has been turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

But investigators also found more bullet casings that raised questions about the first shooting incident, as well, the official said.

Sheriff Lupe Treviño said he could not comment on the pending investigation.

“Any investigative actions that we have taken since the initial report are considered to be part of an open investigation,” he said. “I cannot confirm or deny there was evidence of projectiles getting close to the children before the incident on the 12th.”

For the Tijerina family, however, they are not focusing on what may have been prevented.

Misael Tijerina said school officials “were not being proactive” by not changing policy after the first incident of gunfire. But he’s not focused on that now. He is just grateful that his son is still alive, even if he cannot walk.

“We’re very lucky to still have him here,” the father said. “The shot he took, it was a deadly shot.”

Misael said he had just returned home from the hospital after 9 a.m. Monday, where he spent the day with his wife, Donna, and Nicholas.

“He would always wrestle me when I walked in the door,” Misael said. “I walked in today and it was just silent. It just makes me sad. I just got to hang in there and be strong.”

Donna Tijerina said she is staying as positive as she can, as well. She said she had no criticism for the school’s lack of response after she learned of the first incident of reported gunfire. That negativity won’t help her son.

“I could honestly say that,” she said of criticizing the school. “But in my heart of hearts, I think things happen for a reason. I think it happened so all this stuff is coming out so other kids couldn’t be hurt.”

Doctors sat Tijerina upright for the first time since the shooting on Monday. They put his feet on the floor. But he still has no feeling below his waist.

“My focus is my son and that’s it,” she said. “If something did happen prior to this, shame on them. Truly, shame on them. What else can you say?”

--

Jared Taylor covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached atjtaylor@themonitor.com and (956) 683-4439.