Slain Father’s Prophecy Haunts Grieving Family

Last week, Felipe Gutierrez Nino repeated to his daughter what he had told his wife for years: “When I pass away, it will be on the news.”

“He told me, ‘Don’t buy expensive flowers, don’t wear black clothes, because I know the pain is not on the outside,’ ” recalled Elizabeth Nino.

Days later on Jan. 19, Nino was shot to death at close range in the parking lot of his family’s Santa Ana apartment as he left for work at a local Mexican restaurant.

The shooting marked a violent end to Nino’s odyssey from Mexican federal police officer and former bodyguard for the governor of the state of Morelos to the streets of Santa Ana, where he came four months ago to visit his grandchildren.

Like detectives at work on the case, Elizabeth Nino and other family members remain baffled. The 53-year-old had no known enemies in Mexico or the United States, they say. After a 22-year career in the federal police, he retired in 1984 to the Mexican countryside where he lived what they describe as a peaceful life.

Santa Ana police have no leads in the case and are turning to Mexican authorities to determine whether Gutierrez Nino’s work might have played a role in his death.

Some relatives “felt there might be someone, because of his past employment with the federal police, that might be after him,” Sgt. Raul Luna said.

But several family members dispute that, saying they doubt that his police career played a role in his death. “We never thought this would happen,” son-in-law Jorge Andrade said.

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In the tiny Mexican village of Carabalincito in the state of Guerrero, Gutierrez Nino’s widow and neighbors are still waiting for his body to arrive. About 100 people live in the town, two hours by car from Acapulco.

“He always told us his death would make news,” said Bernarda Gutierrez, his wife. “Now it has come to pass. It is sad.”

Gutierrez Nino was something of a celebrity in his hometown, which has only one telephone. His family said he was known as the honorary sheriff and most people knew him by name.

Gutierrez Nino raised cows and sheep. Occasionally he provided security at a jewelry store in a nearby city, and at the federal Social Security office, they said.

Family members agree that if someone had wanted to kill Gutierrez Nino, they could have done so at his remote 10-acre ranch.

His wife said Gutierrez Nino often lamented that they did not know many of their grandchildren because they lived in the United States. So, in October, he came north for an extended visit with family members in Santa Ana. His children convinced him to stay awhile and take a job.

He became one of them, rising for his janitorial job each morning about 6 a.m. with daughter Verna, 17, who was on her way to school. Sometimes the two would leave the house together.

The morning of the killing, Verna was running late. She was inside the family’s one-bedroom Brook Street apartment getting ready.

She heard a shot but thought little of it because the family sometimes heard them. Then a neighbor tapped on the kitchen window.

“It’s your father,” she said.

Verna ran out to see Gutierrez Nino lying on the ground. At first, she and sister Elizabeth thought he might be experiencing the sort of gastritis that sent him to a hospital emergency room a few weeks before.

But then they realized he was dead.

Said his wife: “I tell my children that I sent him to them alive. Now they send him to me in a box.”

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A week later, detectives have learned little about Gutierrez Nino’s police career and have no witnesses to the crime.

Gutierrez Nino attended a party at the apartment complex late Thursday night, and police are investigating whether he got into an argument there. The shooting also could have been a botched robbery, although Gutierrez Nino’s wallet was still in his pocket and contained a small amount of money.

Regardless of the motive, the killing has his family on edge.

“Whoever it was waited for him. He was the only target,” said son Felipe Nino. “Other people leave for work at that time. They wanted him. It scares us.”