3 arrested in home invasion; occupant dead

By Cindy Yurth and Donovan Quintero
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK

Navajo Nation Police have arrested three men in connection with a Sweetwater, Arizona, home invasion early Friday morning that left one man dead, a police spokesman said. A fourth suspect, a 14-year-old juvenile, is still at large.

The police stopped short of calling the death a homicide, but the case has been turned over to the FBI, which usually indicates a murder or other serious crime.

Quinton Halloway, 25, of Sweetwater, identified the deceased as his grandfather, Milton Wagon Sr., 64. He said his grandmother, aunt and two nephews were wounded during the incident, which occurred about 4:45 a.m.

Halloway said he was away at a job in Colorado when the incident occurred, but he that three adult men and a juvenile, all of whom were known to the family, kicked in the door to his family’s home and began beating his nephew. When his grandparents tried to intervene, they turned on them and began beating them as well, and stabbed his aunt when she arrived from her nearby home to try to protect the family.

Wagon died after the beating, according to Halloway.

The police did not identify the suspects but Halloway said his family recognized the adults as Amondo Whiterock, Evan Begay and Shonovan Curley.

Halloway said the men belong to a neighboring family and the two families have a long-held “grudge” between them. He said one of the men also had accused his nephew of spending time with the man’s girlfriend.

A longer story on the incident will appear in tomorrow’s Navajo Times.

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