Manuel Avechuco, a 44-year-old Hispanic male, was remembered by friends as a great man with an amazing heart. He was fatally shot during a robbery in Tucson, Arizona, on the night of September 13, 2024.
Just after 10:30 p.m., Tucson Police officers responded to a call about a shooting and found Mr. Avechuco in the roadway in the 800 block of West Calle Evelina, near South Calle Pinta. He had suffered gunshot trauma, and despite officers rendering immediate aid, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Homicide detectives investigating the case soon identified a person of interest, 24-year-old Ambernovana Guadalupe Gradillas, who knew Mr. Avechuco. During interviews with police, Gradillas admitted that she and her boyfriend, 26-year-old Alejandro Ray Gamez, had arranged to rob Mr. Avechuco. She told them that during the robbery, Gamez fatally shot him, and the pair then fled the scene.
The investigation uncovered a wider crime spree.
Detectives learned that on September 10, Gamez, Gradillas, and an accomplice had committed a string of armed robberies. After the robberies, Gamez shot and killed their accomplice at a southside park. On September 14, the day after Mr. Avechuco’s murder, police located Gamez at an apartment complex. As officers tried to contain him, Gamez fired at them, damaging a patrol vehicle, before taking his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Gradillas was arrested and charged with felony murder in connection to Manuel Avechuco’s death, as well as multiple counts of armed robbery and aggravated robbery for her role in the crime spree. She later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the fatal shooting and also admitted to two armed robberies. According to a news report, her sentencing was scheduled for December 2024.
