On the evening of October 16, 2016, in front of the SuAnne Big Crow Center in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 29-year-old Native American man Vincent Von Brewer III was shot fifteen times with an assault rifle and a 9mm handgun as he tried to escape his attackers. Reports say the shooting followed an attempt to kidnap him and was tied to a drug debt.

The case drew a multiagency investigation involving the FBI, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations, and police departments from Denver and Aurora, Colorado. Three men from Denver were identified and indicted: Francisco Villanueva, Adan Corona, and Estevan Baquera.

In September 2021 a federal jury convicted Villanueva and Corona of multiple charges including first-degree premeditated murder; Villanueva received two consecutive life sentences and Corona received a life sentence plus a consecutive ten-year firearm term. Baquera pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to first-degree murder for his role in the assault and for preventing bystanders from intervening and was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Does anyone from Pine Ridge or the surrounding area have additional details about that night or Brewer’s life to share?