SALVADOR BRIONES JR - 4 yo (2010) - Mineral Wells (W of D/FW) TX

Mineral Wells TX ---- A Mineral Wells family is devastated after a
4-year old boy who was kidnapped from his home was found dead. Police
believe the child was murdered by a family friend who was holding him
for ransom. The man wanted for the kidnapping and murder escaped while
in police custody and is still at large. Salvador Briones, Jr.
disappeared from his parent's Mineral Wells home early Friday morning.
Police say he was snatched from his bed and later found murdered in an
abandoned house.


Barrera

The suspect, Arturo Pacheco Barrera, 23, is wanted by
police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Family members
say the boy's father, Salvador Briones, Sr., received a call at work
Friday morning from Barrera. They say Barrera demanded $15,000 in
exchange for the child's safe return. Briones called police who in turn
called the FBI for help. Barrera was contacted by officers and
voluntarily came into police headquarters for questioning. During
questioning, investigators were able to get Barrera to give them an
address of an abandoned house were the boy might be found. The SWAT team
found Salvador's body at that house in the 3600 block of U.S. Highway
281. Investigators say Barrera later escaped from custody while
officers were out gathering evidence at another location. Mineral Wells
Police Chief Mike McAllester refused to answer questions about how
Barrera was able to escape or why they did not issue an Amber Alert.
Relatives say Barrera claims Briones owes him money. The two men
knew one another because Barrera often helped Briones with home
renovation work.

Mineral Wells authorities found the body of a 4-year-old boy Saturday
who was abducted while he slept at his home the day before. Police
believe Arturo Pacheco Barrera, 23, kidnapped Salvador Briones Jr.
Friday and demanded ransom money.

Police found the boy's body Saturday near an abandoned house on the 3600
block of N. Highway 281 and did not immediately release a cause of
death.

Officials did not issue an Amber Alert as they typically would as to not
alert Barrera, who is a family friend, of the manhunt. But Barrera is
still on the loose; police surrounded him in his home at 2020 Southwest
10th Street, but he escaped.

"I hope they catch him," said family member Linda Ramirez. "I hope they
catch him and he's going to pay. God's up there and he's going to take
care of him. No child deserves that; none."

The Mineral Wells Police Department declined to comment about how
Barrera escaped.

Meanwhile, the boy's parents had to be hospitalized and sedated because
of the intense grief. Police believe Barrera entered the home through a
back door around 9 a.m. Friday. He took the boy while he slept, wrapped
in a blanket.

His mother was asleep with her newborn child in another room of the
house. Ramirez said Barrera was familiar with the outlay of the house,
and often helped with renovations.

Roughly 80 area law enforcement agencies are searching for Barrera.
Salvador Jr. had an older brother, an older sister and a three-week old
sister.

"His birthday was next month, he was going to start school," Ramirez
said. "He didn't even get a chance to start school."

A man who was suspected in the abduction and slaying of a 4-year-old
Mineral Wells boy was fatally shot Sunday afternoon after he was found
by authorities.


Arturo Pacheco-Barrera

It was not immediately clear if the fatal wound was
self-inflicted or came from police officers, who fired at the
23-year-old during the encounter in a deserted field in southeast
Palo Pinto County. Arturo Pacheco-Barrera, a friend
of the boy's family, had been the subject of a massive manhunt since
late Friday following his escape from FBI
custody after he led them to the body of Salvador Briones Jr. in
an abandoned building on U.S. Highway 281 in Mineral Wells.
Authorities are not saying how the boy died because they are
operating under the assumption that there could be a second suspect.


Salvador Briones Jr.

"It's my understanding that two shots were fired and that both of them
were by officers," Mineral Wells Police Chief Mike McAllester said of
Sunday's encounter. "I don't know that we
were responsible for his death. ... There were some indications
that the guy may or may not have been attempting to commit
suicide." Salvador's parents could not be reached
for comment. McAllester said he met with them Sunday afternoon.
"As you might imagine, they are heartbroken," he said.
"The ultimate demise of the person who is believed to have
killed their son doesn't give them any closure." Pacheco-Barrera had lived in Mineral
Wells with his family for some time. He wasn't someone who had
previously come to the attention of Mineral Wells police.
"I've been here 27 years, and I've never had any dealings
with him," the chief said. The Brioneses
considered him a family friend. He had known the family for
several years and had done remodeling work at their home. McAllester
said it was his understanding that he was here legally.
"He was a nice guy," said his sister, 18-year-old Celina
Pacheco-Barrera. "He wasn't in church every Sunday, but he talked to
old people and he was really friendly. This is incredible. I
can't believe what has happened." About 6
a.m. Friday, the boy's father checked on Salvador and his three
sleeping siblings before heading out to his construction job. The
39-year-old father later received a call from a kidnapper, telling him
that he had Salvador and demanding $15,000.
A relative said the kidnapper called several more times. The elder
Salvador Briones initially thought it was a practical joke, a
relative said. Still, he called his wife
who was at home and asked her to check on the couple's four
children. When she went to check, she discovered the back door
open and the boy gone. The other three children, a 2-year-old, an
8-year-old and an infant, had not been taken nor harmed. The family
called the police about 9:20 a.m.
Pacheco-Barrera's sister said she spoke with him about 11 a.m. Friday,
which presumably would have been in the hours after the abduction.
She said nothing seemed amiss. In the
hours that followed, Mineral Wells police developed
Pacheco-Barrera as a potential suspect. Shortly after 6 p.m. Friday,
police began talking to him. Several hours later, he led authorities
to a tiny two-room abandoned building in on Highway 281, where
they found the boy's body. As he led
authorities to retrieve additional evidence at a second location,
Pacheco-Barrera ran from authorities. At the time, he was in FBI
custody and had not been handcuffed, the chief said.
"We had a warrant for aggravated kidnapping for him, but he hadn't
been arrested because he was cooperating," McAllester said.
Police also thought there might be a second suspect, so they
wanted him to continue to cooperate. "As
long as he was giving information to those folks, they felt it
wasn't necessary to handcuff him," he said. "The FBI has done absolutely
nothing but professional police work since they've been here. In
hindsight, people get to second guess what we do, but we don't
get that luxury." Pacheco-Barrera's escape
prompted a massive manhunt involving local, state and federal
authorities. Late Saturday, a burglar broke into a Mineral Wells
home, taking a .40 caliber handgun and some clothing. Police
believe Pacheco-Barrera carried out the burglary.
Shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday, Mineral Wells police were notified by the
Palo Pinto Sheriff's Department that a woman had spotted a man
fitting the description of the accused kidnapper on her rural
property. The woman saw him throw a backpack over a fence and
continue moving south. Several officers were sent
to check it out and spotted the suspect in a field, accessible
only by a dirt road, about seven miles south of Mineral Wells in
an area called Dobbs Valley. "At that point, they
called out for reinforcements and set up a perimeter,"
McAllester said. "All surrounding agencies responded. Shortly
after that, we were notified that shots had been fired at the
location." He said the officers must have felt
"threatened by this subject," prompting them to shoot at him. The
Texas Rangers, who will carry out the shooting investigation,
will have to determine what killed Pacheco-Barrera.
"I don't think there was any doubt that he was shot by the
officers on the scene, but I don't know that that's what killed
him," McAllester said. The chief said he
doesn't know if Pacheco-Barrera had a gun. The backpack contained
ammunition from a .40 caliber weapon similar to that taken in
the burglary. In the town of 17,000 residents,
the brutal slaying of someone so young left the community
reeling. Rumors abounded and residents feared even going
outdoors. "This isn't something that happens
here, there's no question of that," said City Manager Lance
Howerton, extending condolences to the Briones family. "These are
the kinds of incidents that you would not wish on anyone."

Friends of Arturo Pacheco-Barrera, 23, said they never thought the
churchgoer's name would be attached to the kidnapping and murder of a
four-year-old boy over the weekend.

"He was a real nice guy," said Emilio Chavez, a member at Our Lady of
Lourdes Catholic Church in Mineral Wells where Pacheco-Barrera worshiped. "[He was] helping out at church, always visiting nursing
homes. He had everything going for him."

Pacheco-Barrera was cornered and killed by police officers after
triggering a day-long manhunt across Palo Pinto County. Authorities
believe he kidnapped Salvador Briones Jr. Friday and demanded ransom
money from the family.

Police treated Pacheco-Barrera as if he were a cooperating witness
rather than a suspect because they believed he would be more forthcoming
with information, officials said. Pacheco-Barrera made the ransom
demand at 9 a.m., he was questioned by authorities at 6 p.m. and a
Justice of the Peace issued a warrant for his arrest at 9 p.m.

He led police to the boy's body around 11 p.m. Friday, which was dumped
in an abandoned building that officials say reached temperatures of up
to 130 degrees. It is unclear if the boy died at his killer's hand or
suffered extreme heat exhaustion while in the building, wrapped in a
blanket.

At about 2:30 a.m., police took Barrera to his home to search for
additional evidence. He fled on foot and evaded police for about 12
hours. Sunday afternoon, a witness called police upon seeing a man
climbing her fence, which is when Pacheco-Barrera was cornered and
killed.

"[Pacheco-Barrera] just purchased a house," Chavez said. "He was going
to get married next month. We don't have any idea what happened or got
into him. We all thought he was the best of the friends anybody could
have."

Friends of the four-year-old's family said his mother was taken to the
hospital and given medication to help manage her intense grief.

Authorities said Pacheco-Barrera was close with the family, and knew the
outlay of the home from performing renovations on it.

He took Briones Jr. while the boy slept in his bed, wrapped in a sheet.
But authorities chose not to issue an Amber Alert; when Pacheco-Barrera
demanded $15,000 in ransom money, police said he threatened to harm the
boy if the family went to police.

"At that point we had to hold all information we get pretty close to the
vest because we certainly wouldn't want to contribute to anything bad
happening to this child," said Mineral Wells Police Chief Mark McCall.

McCall said before Pacheco-Barrera took investigators to the boy, he
told them he had an accomplice. But police questioned their suspect's
reliability, and determined that claim may have been a smokescreen.

"We were able to determine pretty quickly that this guy wasn't
involved," McCall said. "So that led us to believe he wasn't telling the
truth about who the accomplice was and he may have been trying to
conceal that."

FBI officials announced the bureau has initiated a standard probe into
how the case was investigated and why Pacheco-Barrera was able to evade
police.

Mineral Wells police shoot, kill kidnap suspect
WFAA
Posted on July 18, 2010 at 5:08 PM
Kidnapped boy found dead

Soon after the kidnapping, agents quickly arrested Pacheco-Barrera, who was a family friend.
But he escaped.
Officers said the handyman was helping investigators collect evidence, but he was not handcuffed and simply ran off while being walked to a car.
That frustrates Ledesma, who questions police procedures. "You hear about people being handcuffed for a ticket — for a plain and simple parking ticket — and somebody that's being suspected of kidnap and murder doesn't get handcuffed," he said.
After he escaped, police said Pacheco-Barrera likely broke into a home and stole clothing and a gun.
He then hiked through the rural woods south of Mineral Wells until a neighbor spotted him.
"The good Lord was looking down on this community, and the worst thing that the FBI was afraid was that this guy would hurt somebody else, and we're just fortunate that that didn't happen," said Mineral Wells police Chief Mike McAllester.
The death of the prime suspect comes as new details emerge about Salvador's death.
Authorities told News 8 that the child's body had been wrapped tightly in blankets and tied to a bed inside an abandoned home. Police think the boy might have been left alive, but died from the heat.
It's an unthinkable ending for a life that was just beginning.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Mineral-Wells-police-shoot-kill-kidnap-suspect-98712924.html