Robber’s Bullet Ends Dream of New Life

Seven-year-old Guadalupe Silis was looking forward to a new life in Tijuana on a piece of land her father had saved for years to buy. Instead, she stood stunned Monday in a barren Santa Ana living room where she had watched robbers fatally shoot her dad the night before.

“I was sitting there on the couch,” said a wide-eyed Guadalupe, dressed in a flower-print skirt and matching vest. “They put the gun to his head and shot him.”

Police said two men demanding drugs and money killed Raul Silis Rosas, 36, who formerly lived at the duplex in the 4500 block of West Third Street. Two other men were wounded Sunday in the apparent robbery gone awry.

Juan Carlos Martinez, who is in his early 20s and recently moved into the apartment with his girlfriend and two children, was shot in the chest. His condition was upgraded from critical to fair Monday at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

His brother, 25-year-old Jesus Miguel Martinez, was visiting during the robbery and was shot in the left shoulder and right thigh. He was also taken to UCI Medical Center and was in good condition Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Raul Silis Rosas had lived with his family in the run-down duplex for five years. But several months ago, after pooling his savings from work as a mechanic, he moved his family back to Mexico, his wife, Maria Silis Bernal, said Monday.

He and Guadalupe returned to Santa Ana only to fetch some furniture and boxes stored in the garage at the duplex, but the visit proved fatal, said a weeping Silis Bernal, 26. A family friend drove to Tijuana early Monday to inform Silis Bernal of her husband’s death and to bring her back to Santa Ana, she said.

“He was going to come back to Tijuana. He bought land and we were going to start a new life there,” she said as she clutched Guadalupe. “My daughter saw everything.”

Police are unsure exactly what happened during the 7:50 p.m. shooting, but Lt. Robert Helton said it’s possible the robbers believed there would be drug money and drugs at the duplex.

“What the neighbors have been saying is that whoever lived at that residence before possibly may have been involved in narcotics activity,” Helton said. “We don’t know absolutely if the suspects came back looking for those people, or if the suspects might have thought the new people had drug money.

“Maybe the suspects were relying on old information and found new tenants.”

Silis Bernal said there was no drug dealing out of the apartment in the five years that she lived there with her family.

On Monday, blood stained the tiled living room floor and the dirt flower bed beside the front door, where Silis Rosas collapsed. Inside, children’s drawings and toys were scattered on the couch and bowls of half-eaten chips and salsa sat on the coffee table, testament to the abrupt interruption of Sunday night’s assault.

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The 17-year-old girlfriend of Juan Carlos Martinez, and the couple’s two children, ages 2 and 1, also were home during the shooting, relatives said. The teenager and her children were resting at her mother’s home Monday.

“She’s so upset, she can’t even talk,” said the 17-year-old girl’s mother, who declined to give her name out of fear. “She’s traumatized.”

The new tenants had only been living in the duplex since Dec. 1, said the 17-year-old’s sister, Teresa Marquina. Marquina, 22, also lives at the duplex with her husband and three children, but her family was not home during the shooting.

“It’s only by luck that we weren’t here last night,” Marquina said as she gathered up her things Monday to move out of the apartment. “We’re afraid to stay here.”

Police described the assailants only as two male Hispanics, age 20 to 25, about 5-foot-7, with thin builds. No vehicle was seen or heard leaving the area, Helton said.

One man was armed with a shotgun and the other with a .22-caliber weapon, Helton said. According to Helton, the men gained entry to the apartment, demanded money and drugs and began ransacking the apartment. The assailant with the .22-caliber weapon began shooting after a confrontation erupted in the living room, Helton said.

Relatives of the victims, including the 7-year-old girl, said Monday that the men were in the garage working on a car when the robbers arrived. The door to the duplex was open and the 17-year-old was inside with her children.

The assailants forced the men into the apartment and one shot Raul Silis Rosas when he tried to run for the door, relatives said. It is unclear where the Martinez brothers were when they were shot.

Silis Bernal said she is overwhelmed by the sudden death of her husband and has not yet begun to think of funeral arrangements.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” she said. “We need help to come up with the money to have him buried in Mexico.”

Anyone wishing to help with burial expenses should contact family friends Patricia or Rafael Hernandez at (714) 953-0227, she said.