Carjacking, murder suspect had several run-ins with law
Self-proclaimed gang member had only one conviction as an adult
Santiago Romero-Amaya’s car was acting up Wednesday evening.
So after fiddling with it for awhile, he grabbed the keys to his daughter’s brand new Jeep Patriot and headed to AutoZone near Coors and Rio Bravo.
“He told me he was going to be right back,” his daughter Karina Romero said Friday.
The 64-year-old, who worked making mouldings for the past 24 years, didn’t even make it into the store.
Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies say a self-proclaimed Westside Bloods gang member demanded the Jeep and then shot and killed Romero-Amaya in the AutoZone parking lot, taking off with the car.
Deputies believe the suspect,
later identified as 21-year-old Ronald Delfino, then held up a Northwest Albuquerque McDonald’s, robbing it at gunpoint.
He only spent a couple hours on the run before Albuquerque Police Department officers saw him near West Central. They and sheriff’s deputies started chasing him near Central and Unser.
Sheriff’s deputies say he fired at least one shot at officers, and deputies and officers opened fire on him. At some point, the Jeep caught on fire, and Delfino was pronounced dead at the scene.
Delfino only has one adult conviction for misdemeanor DWI, but his run-ins with police date back to 2009, according to police records.
In October 2009, when Delfino was 15, he and off-duty APD officer Earl Nagy got into a road rage fight that ended with shots fired by both parties, according to Journal archives.
Both Nagy’s wife and Delfino were struck with bullets but were not seriously wounded. Delfino faced numerous charges, but the outcome of that case was not immediately available Friday.
In 2013, Delfino was caught with a friend in a stolen truck and charged for it, but the case was later dismissed. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor DWI in September 2014, and he had a warrant out for his arrest for another misdemeanor DWI in 2014, according to court records.
BCSO spokeswoman Felicia Romero on Friday sent out a lengthy summary of Delfino’s arrests, but not convictions, which included multiple photos, apparently taken off of Delfino’s Facebook page, that show him throwing gang signs.
In that document, Felicia Romero said he went by the moniker “Lil’ Never Skared.”
Deputies have not said how exactly he died, though Sheriff Manuel Gonzales said he “would believe” Delfino was struck by police and deputies’ gunfire.
An Albuquerque police officer was struck in his bulletproof vest with a bullet, and another APD officer tore his Achilles tendon while trying to throw out a spike belt. Both were released from the hospital early Thursday.
Karina Romero, who just graduated from Rio Grande High School, said she would like to thank the officers who were injured for their efforts in stopping Delfino.
Romero-Amaya leaves behind his wife, two daughters and two grandchildren. She said her family is still in shock.
“We’re devastated,” she said. “We only have each other now.”