Las Cruces murder could test ammunition sale policy

A 2005 Las Cruces murder is the latest battleground over the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The family of Eusebio Escobedo is suing Wal-Mart, alleging that the man who killed him was sold shotgun shells hours before the April 25, 2005 shooting even though he was under the influence of alcohol, mentally disturbed and a felon who couldn’t legally possess a firearm. The suit says the ammunition was bought at the store on Walton Boulevard.

The Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting that the children, fiancée and estranged wife of Escobedo, who was 27 at the time of his death, are seeking unspecified damages.

Wal-Mart requires background checks, a valid ID and a determination that a customer is not under the influence for firearm sales, the Sun-News reported, but has no such policy for ammunition.

Kenneth Carson Rauch, who was a convicted felon at the time of the murder, was drinking and depressed over the 2001 death of his son the day he allegedly killed Escobedo, the Sun-News reported. It’s not illegal for convicted felons to possess or purchase ammunition, but it is illegal for them to possess or purchase firearms.

“If there’s ever been someone who should not have been sold ammunition, this is the guy,” Las Cruces Attorney Ken Egan, representing the family, told the Sun-News. “If there was ever a test case for a change in policy, this is it.”

Escobedo, who lived in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was in Las Cruces the day he was shot to see his fiancé and her 3-year-old son. They were at a gas station when Rauch allegedly picked them at random and fired into the hood of the car with a shotgun. Prosecutors say that, as Escobedo sheltered his fiancé to protect her, Rauch shot him through the driver-side window.

Rauch’s trial has been postponed several times, and he is currently being treated at the state behavioral health hospital in Las Vegas in an attempt to make him competent to stand trial. There is currently no trial date.

After Bowling for Columbine filmmaker Michael Moore and three survivors of the infamous 1999 school shooting pushed for a meeting with Kmart officials in 2001, the company phased out the sale of handgun ammunition. The chain of stores still carries hunting rifles and ammunition for those weapons.

Wal-Mart does not sell handguns, but does sell rifles and ammunition.