All Sara Madrid wanted to do that Friday was spend the entire day with Alfonso Muñoz, her live-in partner of 10 years. She had taken the day off just so that she could sit and relax next to him while he drove around and attended to a series of welding jobs he wanted to finish before the end of the day.

As they drove around, the August morning soon melted into a balmy afternoon. The couple, though, was waiting for evening, for it held the promise of a round of pool, dinner and a night of dancing.

Muñoz also had his son, from a previous relationship, visiting him that day, and so the couple hung out with Muñoz’s son until it was time to drop him off at his motel. Madrid and Muñoz then drove back to their mobile home west of Douglas.

By mid afternoon their day had ended in tragedy. Using a small caliber handgun, Madrid’s 12-year-old son shot her five times as she stepped out of their Chevrolet Tahoe.

The boy then turned and inexplicably fired three more rounds at an above-ground swimming pool. Muñoz said he then heard the metallic click of an empty chamber.

“I told him to put the gun down,” Muñoz said.

The boy did as he was told and he set the gun on the hood of Muñoz’s Tahoe. Muñoz said he then called 911.

Madrid had dropped to the ground and as she lay there Muñoz said he reached under and propped her up with one arm and held her hand with the other. She gasped for air as she gripped his hand.

“Don’t let me go,” she told him.

Ten minutes later, by Muñoz’s estimate, Madrid died. She was 34 years old.

An Ordinary Boy

Like many young boys his age, he loved watching TV and using the computer. Often he would ask his mother to take him to the Douglas Public Library so that he could use the Internet, Muñoz said of the boy, whose name was not released by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department because of his juvenile status.

In January he had turned 12 and even at this young age he already expressed an interest in becoming a Border Patrol agent.

 “I don’t know where that came from, but he wanted to be an agent,” Muñoz said.

The boy had also expressed an interest in learning how to weld, and so Muñoz had begun taking him along on his round of jobs so he could learn the basics.

Although Muñoz is not the boy’s biological father, he nevertheless raised him as his own when the boy was only two. Somewhere along the way, the boy started calling him Dad.

“Hey Dad, can I go with you.”

“Dad, can you take me to the library?”

“Hey Dad, can you make some Poncho Burgers?”

Poncho Burgers were his favorite, the over-stuffed and over-sized burgers that Muñoz grilled at home and that carried his namesake––Poncho is short for Alfonso.

In August he would have been in the 7th Grade at Omega Alpha Academy, one of several charter schools in Douglas.

“He had an A in reading, but he also had some F’s,” said José A. Frisby, the executive director of the academy. “He was an average student.”

He was neither disruptive in class nor a disciplinary problem. He was quiet and had few friends; overall, he wouldn’t be considered an extrovert, Frisby said.

“It’s really puzzling to me. The signs were not there,” Frisby said as he shook his head in disbelief.

One word that surfaced among students about the quiet 7th grader was “Loner.”

For Muñoz, the signs were not visible at home either.

“He was a shy boy, who loved to eat, watch TV and, of course, he resisted doing his chores,” Muñoz said.

Doing the chores was a contentious point between mother and son. Out on their property west of Douglas, there were chores to be done, especially outside, and she always seemed to be after him about it, constantly admonishing him about the undone chores, he said.

Feeding and watering the horse was one of those chores. On Friday both Mardid and Muñoz left the house with the expectation that he would feed and water the horse and clean the trough.

“But there was no argument between them,” Muñoz said. “He just listened, took it all in, with a blank face,” he said.

When Madrid and Muñoz returned home at about 4:15 p.m. from dropping off Muñoz’s son, Madrid stepped out of the Tahoe. The boy walked toward her and open fired, Munoz said.

Muñoz ducked behind the Tahoe, especially when the boy took the last three shots toward the swimming pool. Even now Muñoz doesn’t know if those last three shots were intended for him, he said.

He told the boy to set the gun down. The boy then grabbed his head with both hands and paced about the property.

“I’m sorry, Dad, I didn’t mean to do it, Dad,” Muñoz said the boy had repeated.

Waiting To Be Tried As Juvenile Or Adult

The boy was detained at the Cochise County jail and then transported to juvenile detention in Sierra Vista, 45 miles west of Douglas.

On August 4 The Superior Court in Cochise County had filed a motion to begin hearings on whether he should be tried as an adult. If the court accepts the motion, he may be one of the youngest persons in Arizona to be tried as an adult.

As Muñoz grieves for Madrid––Sari, as he called her––he also grieves for the boy. He still can’t understand how or why it happened.

When he was summoned to attend the boy’s hearing, he just couldn’t go. He couldn’t stand to watch him sitting there in court all alone, he said.

“Even though he took the life of his mother, and he took the life of my Sari, I still have compassion for him. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him,” Muñoz said.