Kennewick detectives were looking for a murder weapon. They found something else
Police went to a South Beech Street home last week looking for a murder weapon and discovered illegal guns and drugs.
While police turned up three pistols and a shotgun in Pedro “Grumpy” Baltazar’s home, it doesn’t appear they found the 9mm gun that killed 16-year-old Alex Carcamo-Danley on Dec. 3.
Police arrested Baltazar, 45, on suspicion of four counts of illegal gun possession, in addition to having a stolen gun and possessing drugs, including fentanyl, with the intent to deliver them.
The nine-time felon is being held in the Benton County jail with bail set at $500,000.
Court documents provide more details about the connection between Baltazar and the gang-related December shooting outside the Heatherstone Apartments.
What remains unclear is whether there is any connection with this weekend’s shooting of a 17-year-old in the same apartment complex. Police have said that also was gang-related.
On Dec. 3, investigators believe four teens, including Jacob Carrillo, 15, and Israel Hutchison, 14, left a home in West Richland allegedly looking for rival gang members.
Also in the car at the time was 18-year-old Austin Bleazard, who walked away before Carrillo started shooting at Carcamo-Danley, said court documents.
Investigators found several messages between Bleazard and Baltazar, who reportedly belong to the same gang.
After the shooting, Carrillo reportedly drove to Finley, picked up the four other teens and took them to Baltazar’s shop, court documents said.
Baltazar’s girlfriend then drove Hutchison and another teen home to West Richland. Her black Chevy Avalanche was reportedly seen dropping the teens off.
Detectives, who are still searching for the gun used to kill Carcamo-Danley, applied for a search warrant for the Beech Street home on Feb. 19. They also asked to seize Baltazar’s and his girlfriend’s phones.
Police served the warrant with the help of the Tri-City Regional SWAT team on Wednesday, Feb. 25. When police questioned Baltazar, he said all the guns and drugs in the home were his.
Police then expanded the scope of the warrant and the new search turned up a Taurus .22 LR caliber pistol, which was reported stolen from Walla Walla, along with a 1860 Army .44 caliber revolver, a Ruger LCP .380 pistol and a 20 gauge single shot shotgun.
They also allegedly seized a backpack from the Chevy Avalanche with a large digital scale, 15 ounces of fentanyl individually packaged, and about 50-75 fentanyl pills and a large chunk of a white crystal substance.
Baltazar was out on bail after he was allegedly caught on Dec. 31, 2024, with meth, fentanyl and another pistol.