ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Three teenagers accused of fatally beating two homeless men beyond recognition with cinderblocks, bricks and a metal fence pole may have been terrorizing transients around Albuquerque for months, police said Monday.
Alex Rios, 18, and two boys, ages 16 and 15, are scheduled for arraignment Monday on murder charges in the Friday night slayings. The 15-year-old told police the attack lasted more than an hour, and that the trio took turns picking up cinderblocks over their heads and smashing them into the faces of the men who had been sleeping in a field across from his home, according to a criminal complaint.
A third transient who escaped led police to the boys, whom he said were known for attacking homeless people. The 15-year-old told police the trio had attacked more than 50 people over the last year. And his father told an Albuquerque television station there were rumors his son was violent, but he assumed it was with other kids.
Gilbert Prieto told KOB-TV ( http://bit.ly/1p2f1uE ) that he has no idea what prompted the beatings, and that he and his family had once been homeless themselves.
“It’s so hard that he could do that to someone where… I mean, like I said, we came from there,” said Prieto, the father of the 15- and 16-year-olds accused. “You know what I mean? We’re not there now, but that’s where we… We got out of there,” Prieto said.