A moment of reflection turned into a moment of violence for a group of friends as one allegedly opened fire on another after expressing that he was feeling sick and might have to vomit.
Ryan Trujillo-Falcon, 22 (top left) and Geano Eugene Chavez, 20 (top right) were allegedly together at Crown Hill Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, Colorado before 11 p.m. on August 17, 2024 to celebrate the birthday of a friend shot and killed two years prior.
The cemetery was closed at the time of their purported visit.
“These people were all known to each other. They went there together to visit the gravesite of someone that they all knew, who had just had a birthday,” Jefferson County Sheriff spokesperson Jacki Kelley told KDVR.
Now, Trujillo-Falcon is facing charges of first degree murder, second degree assault, and unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon. Chavez is dead.
The two men were purportedly with a group of mourners who’d all come to honor their late friend on his birthday when Chavez expressed to Trujillo-Falcon that he was feeling sick and thought he might need to vomit, per the court’s affidavit.
When police arrived on the scene just before 11 p.m., they found Chavez with a gunshot wound to the right side of his chest, per the affidavit. He was transported to a nearby hospital by ambulance and pronounced dead approximately one hour later.
After a search of the cemetery, Trujillo-Falcon was reportedly taken into custody. The responding sheriff’s deputies stated that Trujillo-Falcon waived his Miranda rights and told them where the gun used int the shooting was.
According to Deputy Alex DeLeon in the court affidavit, Trujillo-Falcon told him, “I shot the n—a that I thought was my brother.”
The following day, Trujillo-Falcon detailed what happened that night, per court documents. He purportedly explained that he had arrived at the cemetery around 8 p.m. to pay respects to friend Christian Cabrera, who was shot and killed two years prior.
While there with family and friends around his friend’s grave, Chavez purportedly expressed to Trujillo-Falcon he needed to vomit. The suspect told police he replied that if he was going to be sick, he needed to go to the street, but he said Chavez declined to do this and instead expressed he was going to do it on the grave next to him.
Trujillo-Falcon told police that he began to argue with Chavez and another mourner, Ariana Martinez. He then claimed Martinez escalated the argument, punching her in the mouth, per the documents, and pulling him to the ground by his hair.
According to Trujillo-Falcon in the affidavit, while he was on the ground, he pulled out his gun and struck Martinez in the head with the butt of it. He then regained his feet, per the document, and told Chavez to stop. It was when Chaves purportedly started coming toward him that Trujillo-Falcon told deputies he fired one shot.
While he admitted not having a concealed carry license, Trujillo-Falcon told deputies he’d began carrying a firearm after Cabrera was shot, and had it hidden in his front waistband that day. The suspect told authorities he initially shed his jacket, dumped the gun, and attempted to hide, before finally standing up and turning himself in.
Martinez was treated at the hospital for non-threatening wounds and released, per Law & Crime. Chavez died at the hospital. Trujillo-Falcon is being held on $1 million bond at the Jefferson County Jail.
“This is the first for me in my career that we’ve been dispatched to a cemetery that was in reference to the shooting of a person who ended up dying,” Kelley told KDVR. “The cemetery is a place that comforts people. Oftentimes, it’s a place to go visit someone that you’ve lost, but it’s not typically a place of violence.”
In response to the deadly shooting, the cemetery released a statement to KDVR. “We are saddened by the circumstances of the night of August 17. This type of situation is highly unusual at a funeral home or cemetery. We are cooperating fully with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office investigation, as safety of the families we serve is of the utmost importance to us.”
In a GoFundMe set up after Chavez’ death to help pay for funeral services, his brother Romeo Chavez wrote, “His life was taken by a person he called a friend. No, Geano was the definition of a true friend. He would give you the shirt off his back no questions asked.”
“Tragically Geano knew in that moment as he took his last breath he sadly wasn’t going to make it. His death hit his loved ones like a train as it was so unexpected and so unfortunate,” the statement also read.
