Former Puerto Rico Police officer Guarionex Candelario Rivera was sentenced to more than 200 years in prison after killing three fellow officers inside the Ponce police command center.
The shooting happened on December 28, 2015, at the Puerto Rico Police Department’s command center in Ponce. The victims were Commander Frank Román Rodríguez, Lieutenant Luz M. Soto Segarra, and Agent Rosario Hernández de Hoyos, all members of the Puerto Rico Police Department.
According to Reuters, Candelario Rivera was on duty when he walked into Commander Román Rodríguez’s office and asked to speak with him. Police said the senior officer was not immediately able to meet with him, and the situation escalated.
Associated Press reporting said Candelario Rivera had been on sick leave for most of December but appeared unannounced at the station in Ponce, demanding a meeting with the colonel who oversaw the department. Puerto Rico police described him as a 50-year-old officer with years of service.
Puerto Rican trial reporting later gave a fuller account of what prosecutors said happened inside the station. Primera Hora reported that Candelario Rivera arrived at his workplace that morning and asked to meet with Colonel Héctor Agosto, the Ponce area commander. Agosto referred the matter to Lieutenant Soto Segarra, who served as an administrative officer.
Once inside Soto Segarra’s sixth-floor office, Candelario Rivera disarmed her and held her at gunpoint. Román Rodríguez and Hernández de Hoyos later entered the office, and Candelario Rivera unlawfully restrained all three officers.
Several phone calls alerted police command staff to what was happening. Authorities were preparing to negotiate, but Candelario Rivera used his department-issued Glock .40-caliber handgun to kill Román Rodríguez, Soto Segarra, and Hernández de Hoyos.
Lieutenant Javier Requena, who was Soto Segarra’s husband and also a police officer, fired into the office during an attempted rescue and wounded Candelario Rivera. Candelario Rivera was arrested after the shooting, hospitalized, and later charged.
The case went to trial in Ponce. Candelario Rivera’s defense attempted to argue mental incapacity and also tried to shift blame toward the police response. Primera Hora reported that prosecutors rejected that theory, telling jurors that Candelario Rivera knew what he was doing and was the person who fired inside the office.
On November 21, 2016, a jury found Candelario Rivera guilty. El Nuevo Día reported that he was convicted for killing three fellow officers at the Ponce command center.
On December 20, 2016, Judge Carmen Otero Ferreiras sentenced Candelario Rivera to more than 200 years in prison. Primera Hora reported the sentence as 203 years and six months. A later Puerto Rico Court of Appeals record listed the sentence as 203 years, seven months, and six days.
The convictions included three first-degree murder counts, aggravated unlawful restraint counts, and weapons-law violations. Primera Hora reported that the jury was unanimous on all charges.
This case is different from many other entries on this list because the victims were also police officers. But it remains an on-duty killing by a law enforcement officer, committed inside a police facility, using police authority, access, and a department-issued weapon.
Frank Román Rodríguez, Luz M. Soto Segarra, and Rosario Hernández de Hoyos went to work at a police command center and were killed by one of their own. Guarionex Candelario Rivera was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.
