On the evening of October 29, 2020, an altercation on a rural road outside Hermiston, Oregon, ended with the deaths of 18-year-old Hugo Madrigal-León and 18-year-old Raymond Ryan Rios. The incident occurred on Sagebrush Road near Bensel Road and involved four men. Deputies were called at about 8:18 p.m. after a man, identified as Alejandro Madrigal, reported he and his father, Jaime Madrigal, had been in a fight with Madrigal-León and Rios and said he had shot both young men, claiming he did so in self-defense after his father had been shot.

Officers found Hugo Madrigal-León and Raymond Ryan Rios deceased at the scene. Jaime Madrigal was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound; Alejandro Madrigal sustained injuries in the fight and was cooperating with authorities. The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office, the Umatilla Morrow Major Crime Team and the Oregon State Police Forensics Lab opened a double homicide investigation. No arrests had been announced and investigators reported they did not believe the community was at further risk.

Hugo Madrigal-León was a senior at Hermiston High School; his death, and Rios’s, was felt strongly by the school community. If anyone has information about what happened that night on Sagebrush Road near Bensel Road, please come forward.