Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 33 - Scratching the Surface - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In 1993, five men were ambushed at work as they got out of their car. One man was killed, two others critically injured.
The gunman left behind a few spent shell casings, but little else. Forensic scientists would eventually
find a clue in some scraped metal, revealing a history that someone had tried to erase.
[theme music] Miguel Roque met his wife on a beach in their native Cuba. The couple moved to Miami, Florida,
in 1991, where they had their first child, a daughter. KENIA ROQUE: She was beautiful.
She's very beautiful. And then he was worried how to-- to give her the-- the good life to her.
NARRATOR: Miguel was willing to work hard to get the good life. In 1993 the talented mechanical engineer
landed a job at the Aircraft Modular plant that made airplane parts. The 160 employees were a tight-knit group.
And Miguel quickly became one of the family. -I was very impressed that he was here such a short time
from his native country, you know, Cuba. And he knew how to speak English. He was a go-getter.
He was a go-getter. He knew what he wanted, and he was going for it. NARRATOR: Miguel and four other employees
were identified by management as having the potential for advancement, so the company asked the men
to attend computer classes at night. The men all went to class together and formed a carpool.
October 14, 1993, was a night like any other. After class, the atmosphere was light and friendly.
-I guess we were getting real comfortable in the class. And we were just joking, different things about work
and just-- just funny stuff. NARRATOR: When the car returned to the company parking
lot, the driver, Jorge Sanchez, was the first one out. Doug Zamora was the second.
Then someone started shooting. Zamora was hit in the arm. He immediately reached for his own gun.
Sanchez crawled under the car for cover. Zamora was hit again and ran towards the factory door.
Ray Cruz was also hit. Another shot exploded through the windshield and hit Miguel Roque sitting in the backseat.
Moussa owned a handgun and frantically tried to load it. GEORGE MOUSSA: I started shooting out the front,
and the gun jammed. NARRATOR: Another blast went through the roof and hit Miguel a second time.
Inside, employees tried to help Doug Zamora, who was quickly losing blood. GEORGE MOUSSA: At the same time that I was talking to him,
Gerardo Manso came from behind me. I turned around with my gun, aiming at him. NARRATOR: Manso was almost a casualty.
Luckily, Moussa didn't pull the trigger. Manso was a night-shift supervisor who heard the shooting and rushed to help.
When police and emergency crews arrived, they first helped Ray Cruz, who was outside and bleeding, but still alive.
Doug Zamora was unconscious. Miguel Roque was still in the back seat and was pronounced dead at the scene.
KENIA ROQUE: My husband was the best man that I know in my whole life, the best man that I know,
the best person that I knew, the best father that I saw, the best thing that I have in my whole life.
I lose him. NARRATOR: Apparently, the shots were fired from the roof of the factory.
There were spent shotgun shells but no sign of the gun or the gunman. Police searched the area by ground and air.
And they even shut down a nearby highway. But the gunman had made a clean getaway.
Investigators had two questions. Who would shoot five employees? And what was the motive?
As police investigated the shooting of the five employees outside of the airplane factory, they
found evidence that the shooter had been on the factory roof and made his getaway down the ladder in the back.
The shells found on the roof told investigators the weapon used was a shotgun. The shells were double-ought buckshot.
Each shell contained nine pellets about the same size as a 32-caliber bullet. -They've been shot nine times at once, because each pellet
enters the body and does a lot of damage. The pellet travels at about a thousand feet
a second coming out of the muzzle, so it's like being shot nine times at once. NARRATOR: The shooting killed one man, Miguel Roque.
Douglas Zamora and Ray Cruz were alive, but in critical condition. Two others, Jorge Sanchez and George Moussa,
escaped without injury. -I was angry because, these are the people that I worked with.
They were my responsibility, and somebody had hurt them. And I was just-- I don't know if it was my adrenaline,
but I was really angry. I wanted to find the shooter. NARRATOR: Police began their investigation
by asking about any recent firings or disgruntled current employees. One of the supervisors working on the night of the shooting
reported seeing two or three men in a white Cadillac cruising the factory grounds.
This was particularly troubling since one of the shooting victims, Ray Cruz, had a possible link to organized crime.
-Ray Cruz had a family member who was currently in a witness protection program testifying against major drug traffickers
who had assassinated some government witnesses. NARRATOR: Police wondered whether the factory shooting
was a message to the Cruz family, warning Ray Cruz's brother not to testify at that trial.
As police started to investigate that theory, a woman who lived directly behind the factory called
to say she had found a gun in her yard. -Because of the police activity in the area,
she didn't come outside. She was fearful that there was something going on and that she should stay inside.
The next morning, when she came outside to feed her cats, she noticed a shotgun, and she called police.
NARRATOR: There were no fingerprints on the gun. And the serial number had been filed off,
making it virtually impossible to trace. THOMAS QUIRK: It's what we call a robbery gun, where it's
easily concealable by removing part of the barrel and removing the stock from the weapon.
Then it's easier to hide on a person. NARRATOR: To see if this was the gun used in the factory
shooting, Thomas Quirk conducted a ballistic analysis. Most guns have lands and grooves inside the gun barrel
which leave distinctive marks on the bullets. But the barrel of a shotgun is smooth.
-Without having a rifled bore, there are no marks left behind on the pellets. We can't identify the pellets.
We can only identify the shot shells themselves. NARRATOR: When a shotgun is fired,
the expanding gasses force the shell casings back against what is called the breach face of the gun.
-That shotgun will leave marks on the primer of the shot shells over and over and over.
These marks will be the same. So that's what we call the fingerprint of the weapon.
NARRATOR: A microscopic comparison showed that the ballistic fingerprint of the sawed-off shotgun matched the markings
on the shells found on the factory roof. Although this was the murder weapon, it wasn't the type used by organized crime.
-It's been more up close and personal, with handguns, so that they are sure that they hit
their target, their intended target. A shotgun is a good close-up weapon. But from a long distance, because of the way
the projectiles scatter, you may not necessarily hit your target. It didn't appear to be the type of scenario
where you have a person on a roof with a shotgun. It just didn't seem to fit. NARRATOR: The gun and shells were the only
physical evidence investigators had. But the gun still had a story to tell for those who knew how to read it.
Ballistic tests had identified the gun used to kill Miguel Roque and wound Doug Zamora and Ray Cruz.
The question now was, who owned the gun? The serial number had been removed. -Every mark, the serial number, the brand, the model,
the gauge, everything was ground off the weapon. So we had no idea who the manufacturer was
or any of the information, the model or serial number. NARRATOR: The first step was to determine
the make and model of the gun. The gun vault at the Miami-Dade Police Crime Lab holds over 2,000 firearms of various makes and calibers.
Experienced firearms examiners thought it was probably a Remington Model 870 shotgun, so they compared it
to the Remington 870 in their vault. -And sure enough, it turned out to be a 12-gauge Remington pump shotgun.
They're-- they're fairly popular here. And matter of fact, our police officers carry them.
NARRATOR: The Model 870 is popular everywhere. It's one of the bestselling shotguns ever made.
Millions have been sold. The killer knew that tracing such a gun without a serial number would be all but impossible.
-But he didn't know what the crime laboratory can do. NARRATOR: By law, all firearms sold in the United States
must have a serial number stamped into the metal. The number is recorded at the time of sale,
allowing any gun to be traced back to the original phone. -When they stamp a serial number into the weapon,
it compresses the metal of the weapon. And it makes the metal underneath the serial numbers
harder than the metal around it. And that's key for serial number restoration. NARRATOR: Quirk smoothed the area of the serial number
with a sander to create an even surface. He then applied a strong acid to the steel.
The smooth surface ensures that the acid eats the steel evenly. But the area where the metal is compressed, the area directly
beneath the serial number that was removed, is denser and resists the acid. THOMAS QUIRK: And the next thing you'll see
will be white ghost numbers of the serial number raising up through that metal. NARRATOR: With the recovered serial number,
Detective McColman contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. They said the manufacturer had sold the gun
to a local sporting goods store. -Subsequently went to that store. We obtained the ATF form that the purchaser filled out.
NARRATOR: The name on the form was Gerardo Manso. Manso was a night-shift supervisor at the airplane
factory and was one of the first employees on the scene on the night of the shooting.
-We also brought the form to our questioned documents section in our forensic lab.
The signature on both his work records and the form matched. NARRATOR: Investigators discovered that Manso had been
angry because others at work had been promoted ahead of him. One of those promoted was Doug Zamora,
a victim in the shooting -I was the foreman of that department. And he thought that he deserved that position.
Unfortunately, he didn't get it. I believe it's because of his-- his lack of-- not being
able to communicate with vendors due to the fact that he didn't speak any English.
That's probably why I got the position, not because I knew more than him. NARRATOR: But everyone believed Manso
got over the disappointment since he didn't appear to harbor any lingering resentment.
-As soon as all this happened, the one person I turned was-- was Manso. And I said, Manso, you have to help me now here
with everything that's going on, you know. These gentlemen are in the hospital. You have to take over.
So during that week, he was the person who was making sure the machines were running.
NARRATOR: Gerardo Manso denied he was involved in the shooting. It was Manso's closest friend, Miguel Roque,
who was killed in the shooting. And Manso had an alibi, since he was seen in the factory
immediately following the shooting. But a background check revealed that Manso had been a suspect in another shooting death.
The victim allegedly was having an affair with Manso's wife. Police now wondered whether this was a coincidence
or a pattern of revenge and murder. Police now suspected Gerardo Manso in the shooting death
of Miguel Roque and injuring Doug Zamora and Ray Cruz. The murder weapon was a sawed-off shotgun
found in the yard of a woman who lived next to the factory. After raising the serial number, police
discovered it was purchased by Gerardo Manso. And Manso had an interesting background.
-We ran Gerardo Manso through that system, and it hit on a previous homicide, a homicide of Mr.
Gutierrez which occurred, I believe, in 1991. NARRATOR: The victim, Luis Gutierrez,
had been gunned down while in his car on a deserted stretch of road. Manso was question because Gutierrez was allegedly
having an affair with Manso's wife. Despite a strong motive, no physical evidence
linked Manso to the murder, although Gutierrez had been killed with a shotgun. Police asked Manso to come down to police
headquarters for questioning. Manso agreed. After questioning him briefly, detectives
asked him to take a polygraph or lie detector test. Manso consented. Manso was asked if he knew who was
responsible for the shooting and if he was the man who killed Miguel Roque. -His answer, of course, was no, he didn't know,
and no, he didn't kill anybody. There was clear deception indicated on the polygraph
to those responses. NARRATOR: Confronted with the polygraph results, Manso broke down and confessed.
But he said he missed his intended targets and instead killed his best friend, Miguel Roque.
-And he told the detectives in his confession that he was very upset that Mr. Roque died,
because he was not the intended target. In fact, he was the only friend that Manso had in the business.
He indicated his targets were George Sanchez and George Moussa. -I think that he regretted that he
didn't kill the right people. Other than that, that's the only remorse that he expressed.
NARRATOR: Detectives also questioned Manso about the shooting death of Luis Gutierrez.
-He goes, oh, yeah. You know, two years ago I killed my wife's lover, too, with the same gun.
-He fired from inside his vehicle. Therefore the casing would have remained inside his vehicle.
So the only thing on that scene were projectiles from the shotgun, which cannot be traced.
NARRATOR: Manso was charged with two murders, Luis Gutierrez, and his co-worker Miguel Roque.
He was also charged with the attempted murder of the other four men in the parking lot.
Prosecutors believe that what motivated the shooting was resentment at being passed over for advancement.
-As Manso did not speak English, he wasn't invited to go to the training session.
He saw this as a threat to his ability to go forward in his occupation. And so he resented the people that were going.
NARRATOR: He especially resented his supervisors, George Moussa and Jorge Sanchez, for holding him back.
So after hours, he used the machinery at work to cut down the barrel of his shotgun
and to grind off the serial number. On the night of the shooting, he snuck up to the roof with the easily concealed weapon
and ambushed the men he thought were in his way. [gunfire] NARRATOR: Although Manso says that Sanchez and Moussa were
his intended targets, prosecutors don't believe it, since he used a shotgun instead of a rifle.
After the shooting, he threw the gun off the roof into one of the yards near the factory, then
hurried down to the factory floor to create his alibi. -There's a ladder that led to the top of the building.
He must have scurried down. In the confusion, he was able to run out and appear to be concerned.
Now, this would only take a couple of seconds. NARRATOR: When George Moussa saw Manso immediately
after the shooting, he had no idea that Manso was the gunman. -I had my gun drawn.
And Manso was right there. Had I known it was him, the shooter, I would have shot him.
There's no doubt in my mind. -I believe that Mr. Manso is a dangerous man. And he deals with his frustrations through violence.
-It seemed to be the only way he can resolve things, is to eliminate obstacles. NARRATOR: Gerardo Manso was found guilty
of murder and attempted murder, and was sentenced to consecutive life terms in prison.
Kenia Roque shares keepsakes and memories of Miguel with their daughter, Laura. Laura was just 18 months old when her father died,
the father who worked long hours to give her a better life in America but never got to share it with her.
-Sometimes I feel like it's a bad dream that I had. It's not real. I'm not here.
It was another life. But the only choice that I have is keep busy. Keep tired, keep busy, study, working, doing many things.
Don't let my mind any space to think about that. NARRATOR: Doug Zamora and Ray Cruz survived their injuries.
Doug's arm was almost amputated, but doctors were able to save it. The shooting changed the victims.
Doug Zamora quit his job at the factory and went into law enforcement. He now works as a corrections officer.
George Moussa, impressed by the EMTs who responded to the shooting, also quit his job
and is training to become a medic. Manso believed that by scratching the serial number
from his weapon he would remove all traces of ownership. But forensic technology proved him wrong.
-The more forensics that you've got, of course, the better it's going to be. Forensics really don't lie.
It's-- you know, they don't-- really, they don't make the kind of mistakes that witnesses make.
So it's really pretty exciting. THOMAS QUIRK: We linked the casings to the gun, the gun
to the man. [theme music]

Forensic scientists work with the only clue recovered from a multiple-victim shooting: a 12-gauge shotgun. Scientists use unique methods to lift the serial number from the weapon in order to trace it to its owner.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

The episode recounts the 1993 shooting at an aircraft plant, focusing on Miguel Roque's murder and Gerardo Manso's confession as the shooter.

Key points

The Ambush at the Factory. In 1993, five men were ambushed outside their workplace, leading to a tragic shooting.
Miguel Roque's Legacy. Kenia Roque shares memories of her husband Miguel, who was killed in the shooting.
The Shooter's Confession. Gerardo Manso confesses to the shooting, revealing his intended targets were different.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

My husband was the best man that I know in my whole life.

Kenia Roque reflects on her husband Miguel's character after his death.

4:18WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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