I read this in a motorcycle forum:
LIVING WITH KILLING: Ex-cop never had fired at anyone, but this time, she says she had to
December 16, 2003
BY CECIL ANGEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Adela Rivera never fired her gun at anyone in 20 years as a Detroit police officer.
Now a Detroit bar owner, she fired it recently. Once. The single bullet killed two men, who police say were attempting to run over her manager after they had been assaulting and robbing customers in the bar's parking lot.
The shooting has left a number of people reeling. Rivera says she is depressed that she took the lives of two people. And the men's families are asking why Rivera has been cleared by prosecutors and police.
"I never thought I'd . . . I would kill two people," said Rivera, 49. "It was a tragedy. It was a terrible tragedy, and I'm sorry it happened."
Barbara Gordillo, the sister-in-law of one of the men said: "How could she just kill two people and get away with it? I think the cops covered for her. I really do believe it."
Rivera owns Adela's Place, a neighborhood bar she opened six years ago on a lonely stretch of Fort Street in southwest Detroit, where on Nov. 1 she had the fatal encounter withDorian Gordillo, 22, and Rosalio Becerra-Santoyo, 31, both of Detroit.
The following is according to Rivera and police:
It started out like any other Saturday night.
Adela's Place is a former country-and-Western bar that caters mostly to Mexican immigrants. Patrons danced to the house band, Fantasia, under dimmed lights. Rivera worked the door, checking IDs.
Suddenly, a man, who looked injured, ran past Rivera and straight to Salvador Cuevo, the manager, who was behind the bar.
"Salvador comes and grabs me at the door and says they're robbing customers outside, let's go," Rivera recalled.
As Rivera and Cuevo rushed out, a second customer ran past them.
Detroit police homicide investigator Barbara Higgins said one of the victims said Gordillo and Becerra-Santoyo were sitting in Gordillo's black Dodge Neon, claiming they needed help with a flat tire.
When the man approached, Gordillo and Becerra-Santoyo left the car, grabbed the man by the neck and hit him in the back of the head with a beer bottle. They both demanded money.
Upon seeing Rivera and Cuevo, Gordillo and Becerra-Santoyo jumped back into the car, which was pointed toward the parking lot gate.
"I'm trying to pull the driver out of the car, and I saw Salvador on the passenger side, and then I saw him run to the front of the car," Rivera said.
She pulled out a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson that was tucked in her waistband.
Cuevo was standing 10 feet in front of the car, trying to get the remote control to close the gate.
Rivera noticed Gordillo had put the car in drive and, she said, stepped on the gas.
"All of a sudden, the car just went, and there was no place for Salvador to go," Rivera said.
She fired her gun. Just once.
The bullet entered the left side of Gordillo's neck, just below his ear, according to the Wayne County medical examiner. It punctured his throat, exited the right side of his jaw and slammed into the left side of Becerra-Santoyo's chest, near the nipple.
The wounded Gordillo kept driving. He missed Cuevo by 2 feet as he sped through the gate, which had closed only halfway.
The car was found about 2:30 a.m. Nov. 2 by an off-duty Detroit police officer at McKinstry and the I-75 service drive, about four blocks away. The driver was slumped over the wheel, his door open and one foot sticking out. The passenger was sitting upright with a bottle of Bud Light in his hand. Both men were dead.
LIVING WITH KILLING: Ex-cop never had fired at anyone, but this time, she says she had to
December 16, 2003
BY CECIL ANGEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Adela Rivera never fired her gun at anyone in 20 years as a Detroit police officer.
Now a Detroit bar owner, she fired it recently. Once. The single bullet killed two men, who police say were attempting to run over her manager after they had been assaulting and robbing customers in the bar's parking lot.
The shooting has left a number of people reeling. Rivera says she is depressed that she took the lives of two people. And the men's families are asking why Rivera has been cleared by prosecutors and police.
"I never thought I'd . . . I would kill two people," said Rivera, 49. "It was a tragedy. It was a terrible tragedy, and I'm sorry it happened."
Barbara Gordillo, the sister-in-law of one of the men said: "How could she just kill two people and get away with it? I think the cops covered for her. I really do believe it."
Rivera owns Adela's Place, a neighborhood bar she opened six years ago on a lonely stretch of Fort Street in southwest Detroit, where on Nov. 1 she had the fatal encounter withDorian Gordillo, 22, and Rosalio Becerra-Santoyo, 31, both of Detroit.
The following is according to Rivera and police:
It started out like any other Saturday night.
Adela's Place is a former country-and-Western bar that caters mostly to Mexican immigrants. Patrons danced to the house band, Fantasia, under dimmed lights. Rivera worked the door, checking IDs.
Suddenly, a man, who looked injured, ran past Rivera and straight to Salvador Cuevo, the manager, who was behind the bar.
"Salvador comes and grabs me at the door and says they're robbing customers outside, let's go," Rivera recalled.
As Rivera and Cuevo rushed out, a second customer ran past them.
Detroit police homicide investigator Barbara Higgins said one of the victims said Gordillo and Becerra-Santoyo were sitting in Gordillo's black Dodge Neon, claiming they needed help with a flat tire.
When the man approached, Gordillo and Becerra-Santoyo left the car, grabbed the man by the neck and hit him in the back of the head with a beer bottle. They both demanded money.
Upon seeing Rivera and Cuevo, Gordillo and Becerra-Santoyo jumped back into the car, which was pointed toward the parking lot gate.
"I'm trying to pull the driver out of the car, and I saw Salvador on the passenger side, and then I saw him run to the front of the car," Rivera said.
She pulled out a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson that was tucked in her waistband.
Cuevo was standing 10 feet in front of the car, trying to get the remote control to close the gate.
Rivera noticed Gordillo had put the car in drive and, she said, stepped on the gas.
"All of a sudden, the car just went, and there was no place for Salvador to go," Rivera said.
She fired her gun. Just once.
The bullet entered the left side of Gordillo's neck, just below his ear, according to the Wayne County medical examiner. It punctured his throat, exited the right side of his jaw and slammed into the left side of Becerra-Santoyo's chest, near the nipple.
The wounded Gordillo kept driving. He missed Cuevo by 2 feet as he sped through the gate, which had closed only halfway.
The car was found about 2:30 a.m. Nov. 2 by an off-duty Detroit police officer at McKinstry and the I-75 service drive, about four blocks away. The driver was slumped over the wheel, his door open and one foot sticking out. The passenger was sitting upright with a bottle of Bud Light in his hand. Both men were dead.
