LAWRENCE, Mass. — Jose Luis Tejada was "tired" of listening to his girlfriend and her two teenage children "yell and complain," so he took out a .357 Magnum and shot all three in the head.
He then put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but he had already fired all the bullets to kill Milka Rivera, 39, and her two children, Sachary Montanez, 19, and Max Ariel Montanez, 16.
"I shot until there were no more bullets," Tejada told police. "Then I tried to shoot myself, but there were no more bullets in the gun."
An illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Tejada's confession to Monday's triple murder was among the graphic details conained in police reports taken by officers at the scene.
Tejada, 40, told police after the early-morning shooting, he walked out the back door, tossed the gun into the backyard and bumped into a stranger four blocks away, telling him to "take me to the police station. I just killed someone."
When patrolman Alan Laird and Sgt. John Dushame arrived on the scene, they said Tejada confessed to killing the family in their apartment at a nearby public housing project.
"We began to make our way up the stairs, and as we did Sgt. Dushame noticed blood on the stairs and said, 'Oh no,'" Laird's report states. "It was like somethig out of the movies. The bodies of two women and a male were slumped over on each other. Sgt. Dushame immediately checked each one for a pulse. Sadly the victims had expired."
Patrolman Ariskelda E. Ruffen then arrived on scene and Tejada started explaining in Spanish "how he was being yelled at by his girlfriend and kids in their apartment. When he got tired of hearing them yell and complain he pulled out a .357 handgun and shot all three," Ruffen wrote.
Ruffen drove Tejada to the scene. When they arrived, the officer wrote Tejada said "break the door down. They're all dead." After Ruffen read Tejada his Miranda Warning, he said "I've said all I'm gonna say. Let the law do what it has to do."
Investigators found the gun used in the murders in the backyard.
Tejada was arraigned in court Tuesday on three counts of murder, illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, possession of cocaine, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building.
He was ordered held without bail.
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Jim Patten is a reporter for The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass. contact him at jpatten@eagletribune.com.
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Jose Luis Tejada, 40, Lawrence, Mass., at his court arraignment Tuesday on triple murder charges. Mary Schwalm/Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
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