KENNEWICK — Thieves grabbed 60 guns from a Kennewick home earlier this year. Two of them turned up this week at the scene of a deadly Benton City shooting.
Seven teens and young adults are accused of stealing guns, watches, cologne and other items from a Summit View Drive home near Kennewick during a series of burglaries in early April.
A series of social media messages proved to be their undoing after they allegedly shared pictures of the weapons, asking people to buy them and discussing the burglaries, according to court documents.
Investigators believe the break-ins started with three people on April 3 and grew to seven suspects by the final one on April 7, according to court documents.
In all, seven are facing charges in connection with the burglaries, another three are suspected of taking part, said the documents..
Elijah Mykale Cruz, 20, Victor M. Rodriguez Jr., 18, and Kevin Ayala, 18, are each facing charges for first-degree burglary in Benton County Superior Court.
Cruz is also charged with five counts of gun theft, Ayala is accused of two counts of having a stolen gun, and Rodriguez is charged with having a stolen gun.
Four teens, who range from 15 to 17, face similar charges in Benton-Franklin Juvenile Court.
Rodriguez and Cruz have both been arrested and are in the Benton County jail. Cruz is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and Rodriguez’s bail is set at $250,000.
Cruz and Rodriguez are both gang members, according to court documents.
A $250,000 nationwide warrant has been issued for Ayala.
Two of the weapons were found after the brother of one of the suspects along with another 15-year-old were hiding in the house on Willard Avenue south of Benton City after someone opened fire into a party on June 9.
The shooting left Jesus Contreras Chacon, 20, of Yakima, dead, and five others injured.
Police have not said if those two teens were tied to the shooting.
Summit View burglary
Benton County deputies were called to a home on the 89000 block of Summit View drive on April 9 after the homeowner came home from a weeklong trip to find his house ransacked.
Thieves took 60 gun valued at more than $50,000, along with three analog watches, designer cologne and ammunition.
It appeared the thieves had gotten into the home through his daughter’s bedroom window. One of the 17-year-old suspects was a friend of her boyfriend and had been in the home several times.
According to Instagram messages, he along with Rodriguez participated in the first burglary on April 3. The day after the first burglary the teen immediately started messaging people asking if they wanted to go shooting.
In one message, the teen provided one of the other suspects with specific directions on how to go about breaking into the home.
The same teen allegedly accidentally shot himself with a 10 mm pistol in the leg a day after the first burglary. He tried to say if was from a drive-by shooting, but later changed his story, according to court documents.
Detectives also got another lead when the victim and his daughter discovered an Instagram photo of Cruz wearing one of the watches taken during the burglaries.
Detectives then found the 17-year-old friend along with Cruz and another suspect discussing the guns they had during an Instagram live. They allegedly showed the guns they each owned.
Cruz’s Instagram profile led investigators to discover several other of the suspected thieves. One of the photos showed Rodriguez holding one of the guns stolen during the burglary, and another showed the 19 guns taken during one of the burglaries with a message “EVERYTHING we got tn.”
Cruz’s profile also showed several of his attempts to sell the guns, including several that were identifiable as taken during the burglaries.
Police also had messages from several of the other suspects showing the suspects.
