By Casey Grove, McClatchy Newspapers –
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A 29-year-old man who shot his own mother this past week was once her co-defendant in the largest-ever Alaska cocaine bust, according to police and federal authorities.
Paino Alvarez-Perdomo fired twice and hit his mother, Altagracia Guillen, once Wednesday afternoon at his Midtown apartment, police said. She survived with a wound to her abdomen. Officers at the apartment spoke to Alvarez-Perdomo, who surrendered, and police charged him with fist-degree assault and third-degree weapons misconduct.
The two felony charges follow multiple misdemeanor convictions in July of 2002, when Alvarez-Perdomo was 19, that include assault, weapons misconduct, resisting arrest and making a false report.
In November 2002, the mother and son were among 44 defendants listed in four separate indictments for their roles in a massive drug-dealing ring. Federal agents seized more than 200 pounds of cocaine bound for Alaska in separate busts between 1999 and 2002, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The ringleaders pleaded guilty to smuggling more than 300 pounds of the drug to Alaska, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Bradley.
Ten years later, it’s still the biggest bust of cocaine headed to Alaska in state history, said Bradley and the DEA.
Alvarez-Perdomo and his mother, then named Altagracia Perdomo, were charged with conspiracy and distributing cocaine as part of the case.
But while the mother was convicted and served prison time, the charges against her son were dropped, Bradley said.
“He was indicted in that case. It took us a while to find him, and then I believe there were some mental health issues or some other background issues on that,” Bradley said. “At the end of the day, we ended up dismissing the case because we had some witness issues.”
Alvarez-Perdomo was again convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2006, according to a list of past convictions on his most recent charges.
On Wednesday afternoon, the new charges say, police rushed to the Golden Corral restaurant just off Tudor Road after someone called 911 reporting a woman bleeding from a gunshot wound.
Guillen, the mother, later told officers that her son had called her and asked that she stop by the apartment that afternoon. When she arrived, Alvarez-Perdomo opened the door and asked her to come inside.
Guillen told police she saw something behind his back, in his waistband, and could tell something was “not right,” according to the charging document.
“(He) then pulled out a revolver from behind his back and shot Ms. Guillen in the abdomen,” the charges say.
Guillen ran. She heard a second shot, made it to the Golden Corral and asked someone to call 911. Medics rushed Guillen to a hospital with what turned out to be a “non-life-threatening” injury, according to the charges.
Police officers later found a .38-caliber revolver in a back bedroom of the apartment. It was loaded with five rounds, including two that had been fired, the charges say.
Alvarez-Perdomo was in jail Friday held on $10,000 cash-only bail.
