By Jim Patten jpatten@eagletribune.com The Eagle Tribune Wed Sep 07, 2011, 12:15 AM EDT
LAWRENCE — Jose Luis Tejada said he was "tired" of listening to his girlfriend and her two teen children "yell and complain," so he took out a .357 Magnum and shot all three in the head.
He then put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger, but he had already used all the bullets in the gun to kill Milka Rivera, 39, and her two children, Sachary Montanez, 19, and Max Ariel Montanez, 16.
"I shot until there were no more bullets," Tejada told police. "Then I tried to shoot myself, but there were no more bullets in the gun."
This confession by Tejada to Monday's triple homicide at 15 Maginnis Ave. is among the many graphic details from police reports taken by officers on scene. According to those reports, Tejada, 40, told police after shooting his girlfriend and her two children, he walked out the back door and tossed the gun into the backyard. He then walked four blocks to Diamond Street, where he found a stranger at about 2 a.m. and told him "take me to the police station. I just killed someone," police reports state.
Patrolman Alan Laird and Sgt. John Dushame arrived on Diamond Street and Tejada confessed to killing the family. Dushame wrote he noticed blood stains on his shorts. When asked how he killed them, Tejada made the shape of a gun with his right hand and pointed it at this head. As the handcuffs were placed on his wrists, Tejada told police "this was gonna happen sooner or later," Laird wrote in his report.
Dushame then went to the family's townhouse in the Beacon Court Projects and began knocking on the door. Hearing no response, he knocked down the door and went up the stairs with other officers.
"We began to make our way up the stairs, and as we did Sgt. Dushame noticed blood on the stairs and said 'oh no,'" Laird's report states. "It was like something out of the movies. The bodies of two women and a male were slumped over on each other. Sgt. Dushame immediately checked each one for a pulse. Sadly the victims had expired."
Patrolman Ariskelda E. Ruffen arrived on scene and Tejada started explaining in Spanish "how he was being yelled at by his girlfriend and kids in their apartment. When he got tired of hearing them yell and complain he pulled out a .357 handgun and shot all three," Ruffen wrote.
Ruffen drove Tejada to the scene. When they arrived, the officer wrote Tejada said "break the door down. They're all dead." After Ruffen read Tejada his Miranda Warning, he said "I've said all I'm gonna say. Let the law do what it has to do."
Tejada was arraigned yesterday in Lawrence District Court on three counts of murder, illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, possession of cocaine, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building. Tejada did not speak during the short proceeding, just repeatedly nodded his head as a court interpreter relayed to him what was being said.
The courtroom was filled with the victims' family and friends, as well as Lawrence police officers who stood along the walls.
He was ordered held without bail until an Oct. 19 probable cause hearing.
Because the crime of murder has no final disposition in district court the case will likely be presented to the grand jury for indictment and transfer to superior court. Outside the courtroom yesterday, Steve O'Connell, spokesman for Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said he didn't know when the case would go before the grand jury.
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