Answers sought in homicide
Family wants to know why shooter is still free
It’s been two weeks since motorcyclist Earl “Payaso” Roybal was shot and killed at a busy Northwest Albuquerque carwash, and his girlfriend said she continues to be frustrated that the man who shot him has not been arrested.
“I don’t feel like I’m any closer to knowing what’s happening,” Libby Miller told the Journal on Sunday afternoon. “It’s frustrating that this man is walking around on the streets. He’s able to spend time with his family and do what he wants to do, and my whole world was turned inside out and shred to pieces.”
Albuquerque police haven’t publicly answered any questions about the shooting. They say they have talked to the shooter but haven’t completed the investigation.
On March 26, the 59-year-old Roybal was washing and drying his motorcycle at the Hose It Car Wash on Coors near Sequoia NW, when a man grew impatient waiting for him to finish, Miller said. She said she watched as over the span of five minutes the two argued and the man fired three times. She said Roybal had a gun on his hip but he never pulled it out.
Miller said after Roybal was shot, she ran to get her phone to call 911 and the man turned his gun on her.
“I stared down the barrel of that gun,” Miller said. “I was reaching into the back of the bike to get my phone, and he told me if I pulled out a gun he would put a cap in my (expletive) as well.”
Roybal was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Officer Fred Duran, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, has said detectives interviewed the man who shot Roybal that night and they are still putting together evidence and a case file before they can turn it over to the District Attorney’s Office. Police did not return calls Sunday asking if there had been an update.
“We have been in constant communication with the DA’s office on this case,” Duran wrote in an email Tuesday. “We both agree that all the facts need to be gathered and reviewed before a decision can be made ... to maintain case integrity and make a fair and educated decision.”
It’s not clear whether police believe the man shot Roybal in self-defense or why they didn’t arrest him immediately. The Journal filed a request to APD under the Inspection of Public Records Act for documents related to the case and was denied because police say the material contained confidential information.
But Roybal’s friends and family are growing frustrated as to why they still don’t have any answers in the case.
They held a news conference Sunday to urge police to complete the investigation and announce whether or not the shooter will be charged.
“We deserve answers,” Roybal’s aunt, Rita Nunez-Gallegos said. “Whether it’s good or bad, we deserve answers and we deserve them now. It’s been too long.”
Raymond Gallegos, vice chairman of the The New Mexico Motorcycle Rights Organization, said he is working together with national groups to bring attention to the shooting and the group plans to continue talking about it publicly with media and state lawmakers.
“We need to make sure that those who are in charge of the investigation know that we are putting this case under a microscope,” Gallegos said. “One of our members was shot for no reason, and we need to know why APD is taking their time in investigating this.”