A New Mexico man allegedly gunned down his cousin during a drunken argument over green enchiladas, according to reports.
Ervin Joaquin Gutierrez, 22, was cuffed on murder charges for allegedly killing his cousin, Nathaniel Cavazos, at an Albuquerque apartment complex on Thursday evening, according to police.
Gutierrez had arrived at the apartment that afternoon to visit Cavazos, 25, and another one of their cousins, and the three bought groceries and returned to the residence to cook green enchiladas and drink alcohol, according to an affidavit obtained by NBC News.
Gutierrez was repeatedly arguing that the chile on his enchiladas was hotter than the chiles on Cavazos’s plate and challenged his relative to try some of his.
Cavazos then contended that they were all eating the same enchiladas, so there wouldn’t be a difference in the spice level, the affidavit said.
Tensions began to escalate even as the third cousin suggested they take his dog for a walk to cool off. While outside, Cavazos and Gutierrez got into a fistfight, the third cousin told investigators.
Cavazos pummeled his spice-obsessed cousin hard enough to leave him bleeding and began walking away from the fight.
Gutierrez then whipped out a handgun and said, “We’re family! We’re family! How could you do this to me?” before blasting three or four gunshots toward his cousin, striking him in the back, the witness told police.
Cops arrived around 11 p.m. and found Cavazos dead in a pool of blood on a walkway between apartment buildings, the outlet reported.
A handgun belonging to Cavazos was also found roughly ten yards from his body.
The third relative who witnessed the shocking killing showed investigators a Snapchat message sent by Gutierrez, who had fled the scene, saying that Cavazos had threatened his life.
“Is he really dead?” Gutierrez allegedly wrote. “I did not want to kill him, but I didn’t want him to kill me.”
Gutierrez was arrested late Friday and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on an open count of murder, jail records show.
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