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Sheriff seeks suspect in White Post shooting, IDs victims
The Clarke County Sheriff’s Office has obtained an arrest warrant for a suspect in a shooting incident in which one man was killed and another was wounded east of White Post on July 9.
In a press release issued July 11, Sheriff Anthony Roper said the warrant is “for Jose Cuevas-Gonzalez for the attempted murder of Daniel Guerrero-Lopez, 28,” the wounded victim.
Roper also said in the same release that Gonzalez “is the primary suspect in the murder of the other victim, as well.” Roper preliminarily identified that man as Juan Francisco- Cortez, 22, of Charlotte, N.C. However, obituary notices published July 12 in other print media said Francisco-Cortez was from Harrisonburg.
On July 10, Roper had said that the name investigators were given for the deceased victim “is different than identification papers that he had on his person.” Law enforcement personnel in Charlotte, N.C., and in Mecklenburg County, N.C., assisted with the investigation to try to find possible family members.
Roper said on July 10 that investigators that day had interviewed Guerrero-Lopez, who he identified as a landscape worker, and had obtained “information that may prove helpful” as they continue their probe and search for the suspect.
Although he said that Guerrero-Lopez gave investigators an indication as to what could have caused the shooting to occur, Roper said, “we’re not at liberty to discuss that kind of details right at the present time.”
Guerrero-Lopez “provided us insight on some stuff that can be very useful,” Roper said.
Guerrero-Lopez is being treated for a single gunshot wound at an unidentified hospital in the Washington, D.C. area where he was taken by helicopter on July 9. He is expected to recover.
An autopsy was performed by the Medical Examiner’s Office in Fairfax County on the second victim, who was pronounced dead at the scene on Nelson Road the day of the shooting, Roper said.
"The victim died of multiple gunshot wounds, and further tests are being conducted,” Roper said. “The results of these tests will not be known for some time,” he added.
Roper did not say on what part or parts of his body either of the victims was shot.
The whereabouts of the suspect remains unknown, Roper said on July 11. “We’re still actively seeking him. Several investigative leads have been addressed, with negative results."
Also on July 11, Roper said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had helped to positively identify Cuevas-Gonzalez. “According to ICE, Cuevas-Gonzalez is in the United States illegally,” Roper said.
Cuevas-Gonzalez was born on Sept. 22, 1954, and was a handyman, gardener, and farm worker at the Nelson Road residence, Roper said.
The last vehicle known to have been driven by Cuevas-Gonzalez was recovered in Jefferson County, W.Va., later on the day of the shooting, Roper said. The suspect has family ties in California and Texas, he added.
Roper said that, also on the day of the shooting, his office executed a search warrant on a residence in Clarke County where Cuevas-Gonzalez lived. But he did not specify the exact location or what, if anything, was found.
However, the warrant, which was filed July 10 with the county circuit court clerk’s office in Berryville, states that the residence searched is at 50 Prospect Springs Lane in Boyce. The warrant also states that Cuevas-Gonzalez is employed at a Nelson Road farm.
According to the warrant, the owner of the Nelson Road property states that Cuevas-Gonzalez received a phone call just before the shooting and was overheard having an argument." The warrant further states that "he ask(ed) to leave for five minutes. She heard gunshots after he left, and he did not return."
"She states that he lives at 50 Prospect Springs Lane," the warrant states.
The warrant, which is dated July 9, also states that Roper spoke with the suspect’s nephew at the Boyce residence and that the nephew said the shooting victims “were at the residence approximately 2:15 PM this date.”
According to a July 9 press release from Roper, Sheriff’s Office emergency dispatchers, at approximately 2:20 p.m. that day, “received a 911-telephone call from an apparent passerby indicating two shooting victims were located along Nelson Road.”
When emergency personnel from the Sheriff’s Office and area fire companies responded, they found the victims in a black sport utility vehicle in a driveway on that road, according to the July 9 press release.
An inventory of items listed in the search warrant as seized from the Prospect Springs Lane house includes two Western Union receipts, assorted paperwork, ownership rewards paper, a West Virginia DMV registration card, and papers with telephone numbers.
Roper said a second warrant was also executed for a search of the sport utility vehicle, "a 2002 Black Cadillac Escalade bearing North Carolina registration XYK2532." Nothing is listed on that warrant as seized.
Contact the reporter at rmarlow@timespapers.com
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