Teen’s customized trike stolen, then recovered
MESILLA, N.M. – A Mesilla marshal is being praised for going above and beyond to help return a tricycle to a student with special needs, even lending a helping hand on the same day he responded to tragic shootings on Interstate 10.
The Holguin family says Sgt. Benjamin “Buckaroo” Azcarate came to their rescue following the disappearance of the trike, made especially for 14-yearold Grace.
“The length of the bike from the seat to the petals is customized to the length of her legs,” said Grace’s mom, Andrea Holguin, “and the fact that her handlebars can move up and down and kind of swings out of the way (makes it easier for) her to get in and out.”
Grace Holguin was born with Down syndrome and a congenital heart defect. She has some balance problems and was recently diagnosed with a thyroid disorder.
The trike cost $1,200, but for the Holguins, it’s priceless. “It’s really important for Grace to do something together with her family in a way we can all participate together and she feels safe and comfortable,” Andrea said.
On Jan. 30, the bulky trike that was bolted to one of the pillars of their home’s carport went missing. Andrea said she and her husband, Omar, and the rest of the family were devastated. Azcarate responded to the incident and advised the family to post about it on social media. Since the Holguins aren’t on social media, they received help from Deana Baker, from the Mesilla Park Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization.
Days later, Azcarate showed up at the Holguins’ home holding a white envelope with Grace’s name written on it. The envelope was stuffed with cash donations that he’d been raising intending for it to go toward a new trike.
“This officer went above and beyond,” Andrea said. “He said he felt really bad about it and he just wanted to do something to make sure that she could have a bike that she could ride. It was great, because it’s been hard to connect with people lately. For everyone to rally around her and our family like that was amazing – just to have that connection (and know) that people cared.”
On Feb. 4, the Holguins got a call from Baker who said a friend of hers saw Grace’s trike. Andrea hopped in her car and went to meet the friend. He showed her a group of children playing with a tricycle – Grace’s trike. The children told Andrea that their mom bought it from someone off the street.
Andrea said when one of the boys heard about Grace and why the trike was important to her, he wanted to return it. When Andrea confirmed that it was Grace’s trike, she called Azcarate to meet her, though he was dealing with something else at the moment.
Earlier that day, Omar Felix Cueva shot and killed New Mexico State Police officer Darian Jarrott during a traffic stop on I-10 near Deming before fleeing east. On the interstate near Las Cruces, Cueva was killed in a shootout with officers from several agencies.
Azcarate was one of the officers who responded to the incident, which closed the interstate for most of the day for an investigation. Still, Azcarate was able to eventually answer Andrea’s call and met her to retrieve Grace’s trike.
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KINSHASA, Congo – The Italian ambassador to Congo, an Italian carabineri police officer and their Congolese driver were killed Monday when gunmen attacked a U.N. convoy going to visit a school in eastern Congo, the Italian Foreign Ministry and residents said.
The ambush occurred as the convoy was traveling from Goma, Congo’s eastern regional capital, to visit a World Food Program school project in Rutshuru, the U.N. agency said.
The WFP said the attack occurred on a road that had been cleared previously for travel without security escorts, and it was seeking more information from local officials on the attack. Eastern Congo is home to myriad rebel groups vying for control of the mineral-rich Central African nation that is the size of Western Europe.
Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambassador to the country since 2017, Carabinieri officer Vittorio Iacovacci and their driver were killed, the Foreign Minister said. Other members of the convoy were wounded, WFP said.
The attack, a few miles north of Goma, was just next to the Virunga National Park. North Kivu Gov. Carly Nzanzu Kasivita said the U.N. vehicles were hijacked by the attackers and taken into the bush. The Congolese army and park guards for Virunga National Park came to help those who had been attacked, he said.
“There was an exchange of fire. The attackers fired at the bodyguard and the ambassador,” the governor said, adding that the ambassador later died from his wounds.
Attanasio, a 43-year-old career diplomat, left behind a wife and three young children.
The attack occurred in the same area where two Britons were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in 2018, said
Mambo Kaway, head of a local civil society group.
“The situation is very tense,” he added.
More than 2,000 civilians were killed last year in eastern Congo in violence by armed groups whose brutal attacks have also displaced over 5.2 million people in what the U.N. calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Marie Tumba Nzenza, Congo’s minister of foreign affairs, sent her condolences and promised the Italian government that the Congolese government would do all it could to find the attackers.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Premier Mario Draghi also expressed their condolences to the victims’ families.
“The circumstances of this brutal attack are still unclear and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened,” Foreign Minister Luigi
Di Maio said.
Di Maio was flying from Brussels to Rome to meet with Draghi and to brief Italian lawmakers on the attack. The Rome prosecutors’ office routinely leads investigations of Italians who are victims of crime abroad.
A special Carabinieri investigative unit was to arrive in Kinshasha on Tuesday, Italian state TV reported.
After serving in diplomatic roles in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria, Attanasio was assigned to the Italian embassy in Kinshasa in September 2017.
Last October, he was awarded the Nassiriya International Prize for Peace in a ceremony held in a church in southern Italy. Attanasio was cited for “having contributed to the realization of important humanitarian projects, distinguishing himself for altruism, dedication and the spirit of service for people in difficulty,” the La Repubblica newspaper reported.