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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003824807_stabbing07m.html
Stabbing victim terrified of ex-husband
By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
Rinthya Brooks had four children.
Rinthya Brooks spent each night for most of the past year pacing her home, checking the windows and doors in fear of her ex-husband.
But when it came to her social life, she refused to be intimidated.
Many in Seattle's tight-knit Honduran community knew about the violence Brooks endured at the hands of her ex-husband, Santos Arriola-Rochez.
The couple's history prompted their Caribbean ethnic group — Garifuna — to not allow them to attend the same local cultural events, insisting the first one to arrive could stay while excluding the other, said Brooks' older sister, Cynthia Brooks.
On Saturday night, Brooks arrived first at a Garifuna event at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in South Seattle and spent the night dancing and talking with friends. The night was winding down when early Sunday Arriola-Rochez burst through the door, ran toward Brooks and started stabbing her, said Seattle police.
Four people who tried to break up the fight were slashed before a man pulled out a gun and fatally shot Arriola-Rochez, Cynthia Brooks said.
One man who was stabbed was treated at Virginia Mason Medical Center, according to police.
When police arrived they found Arriola-Rochez lying on the floor clutching a knife.
Brooks, a 33-year-old mother of four, was found dead next to him.
The man who shot Arriola-Rochez, a friend of the Brooks family, declined to talk out of fear of the slain man's family, Cynthia Brooks said. The man, his wife and their children stopped by Cynthia Brooks' Woodinville home Monday to discuss what happened.
"He's feeling real bad because he had to do it. It was in defense," said Cynthia Brooks, 34. "He took the first shot and he [Arriola-Rochez] was still stabbing her."
Seattle police questioned and released the 32-year-old man who shot Arriola-Rochez.
He had a valid concealed-weapons permit and he apparently acted to protect others, said Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel.
"It's an active homicide investigation, but he is not a suspect," Kappel said.
Rinthya Brooks was an outgoing, pretty teenager — the second-oldest in a family of five girls and a boy — when she met Santos Arriola-Rochez in their native Roatán Island, Honduras, Cynthia Brooks said.
Arriola-Rochez was charming, handsome and wooed Brooks with gifts of money, clothes and even a new gold-crown tooth, said Jenive Littrean, Brooks' youngest sister.
Brooks told her family she and Arriola-Rochez would someday marry. But when the Brooks family moved to Miami in 1990, she met and married another man and had three children. The couple divorced about five years ago, Cynthia Brooks said.
More than 15 years after leaving Honduras, Brooks returned and rekindled her romance with Arriola-Rochez. The couple married in 2003 and moved to Seattle.
It wasn't until 2005 that Rinthya Brooks filed reports of domestic violence with Seattle police, but Cynthia Brooks said the first beatings began when her sister was six months pregnant with the couple's only child.
Cynthia Brooks said she often confronted her sister about the cuts and bruises, but she said her sister denied any problems until the violence extended to her children about 2-½ years ago.
The couple separated in January and divorced in July. Court records indicate Brooks and Arriola-Rochez filed for divorce on March 30.
Court records also show that Arriola-Rochez had a record of domestic violence, including multiple counts of assault in April.
After the couple parted, Arriola-Rochez frequently threatened her sister, Cynthia Brooks said. Though she was working as a medical assistant at Valley Medical Center in Renton, and as a stocker in a Tukwila Target store, Rinthya Brooks spent her nights at home in fear of her ex-husband, Cynthia Brooks said.
Cynthia Brooks said her sister obtained a domestic violence no-contact order against her ex-husband. At the time of his death, Arriola-Rochez was wanted by authorities on an outstanding domestic-violence warrant.
Brooks told her older sister she was scared.
"She said, 'Why should I run from him? Why should I hide from him?,' " Cynthia Brooks recalled. "It's not fair because you have to rearrange your life because someone doesn't know what 'no' means."
Nonetheless, Rinthya Brooks refused to hide in her home or alter her life, her sister said.
Cynthia Brooks and Littrean, who lives in Issaquah, said they plan to raise their slain sister's children, a 14-year-old boy, a twin boy and girl who are 13, and a 3-year-old girl.
"The 3-year-old is doing the best," Cynthia Brooks said. "I wish I was 3 years old again so I don't hurt as much as I'm hurting.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003824807_stabbing07m.html
Stabbing victim terrified of ex-husband
By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
Rinthya Brooks had four children.
Rinthya Brooks spent each night for most of the past year pacing her home, checking the windows and doors in fear of her ex-husband.
But when it came to her social life, she refused to be intimidated.
Many in Seattle's tight-knit Honduran community knew about the violence Brooks endured at the hands of her ex-husband, Santos Arriola-Rochez.
The couple's history prompted their Caribbean ethnic group — Garifuna — to not allow them to attend the same local cultural events, insisting the first one to arrive could stay while excluding the other, said Brooks' older sister, Cynthia Brooks.
On Saturday night, Brooks arrived first at a Garifuna event at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in South Seattle and spent the night dancing and talking with friends. The night was winding down when early Sunday Arriola-Rochez burst through the door, ran toward Brooks and started stabbing her, said Seattle police.
Four people who tried to break up the fight were slashed before a man pulled out a gun and fatally shot Arriola-Rochez, Cynthia Brooks said.
One man who was stabbed was treated at Virginia Mason Medical Center, according to police.
When police arrived they found Arriola-Rochez lying on the floor clutching a knife.
Brooks, a 33-year-old mother of four, was found dead next to him.
The man who shot Arriola-Rochez, a friend of the Brooks family, declined to talk out of fear of the slain man's family, Cynthia Brooks said. The man, his wife and their children stopped by Cynthia Brooks' Woodinville home Monday to discuss what happened.
"He's feeling real bad because he had to do it. It was in defense," said Cynthia Brooks, 34. "He took the first shot and he [Arriola-Rochez] was still stabbing her."
Seattle police questioned and released the 32-year-old man who shot Arriola-Rochez.
He had a valid concealed-weapons permit and he apparently acted to protect others, said Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel.
"It's an active homicide investigation, but he is not a suspect," Kappel said.
Rinthya Brooks was an outgoing, pretty teenager — the second-oldest in a family of five girls and a boy — when she met Santos Arriola-Rochez in their native Roatán Island, Honduras, Cynthia Brooks said.
Arriola-Rochez was charming, handsome and wooed Brooks with gifts of money, clothes and even a new gold-crown tooth, said Jenive Littrean, Brooks' youngest sister.
Brooks told her family she and Arriola-Rochez would someday marry. But when the Brooks family moved to Miami in 1990, she met and married another man and had three children. The couple divorced about five years ago, Cynthia Brooks said.
More than 15 years after leaving Honduras, Brooks returned and rekindled her romance with Arriola-Rochez. The couple married in 2003 and moved to Seattle.
It wasn't until 2005 that Rinthya Brooks filed reports of domestic violence with Seattle police, but Cynthia Brooks said the first beatings began when her sister was six months pregnant with the couple's only child.
Cynthia Brooks said she often confronted her sister about the cuts and bruises, but she said her sister denied any problems until the violence extended to her children about 2-½ years ago.
The couple separated in January and divorced in July. Court records indicate Brooks and Arriola-Rochez filed for divorce on March 30.
Court records also show that Arriola-Rochez had a record of domestic violence, including multiple counts of assault in April.
After the couple parted, Arriola-Rochez frequently threatened her sister, Cynthia Brooks said. Though she was working as a medical assistant at Valley Medical Center in Renton, and as a stocker in a Tukwila Target store, Rinthya Brooks spent her nights at home in fear of her ex-husband, Cynthia Brooks said.
Cynthia Brooks said her sister obtained a domestic violence no-contact order against her ex-husband. At the time of his death, Arriola-Rochez was wanted by authorities on an outstanding domestic-violence warrant.
Brooks told her older sister she was scared.
"She said, 'Why should I run from him? Why should I hide from him?,' " Cynthia Brooks recalled. "It's not fair because you have to rearrange your life because someone doesn't know what 'no' means."
Nonetheless, Rinthya Brooks refused to hide in her home or alter her life, her sister said.
Cynthia Brooks and Littrean, who lives in Issaquah, said they plan to raise their slain sister's children, a 14-year-old boy, a twin boy and girl who are 13, and a 3-year-old girl.
"The 3-year-old is doing the best," Cynthia Brooks said. "I wish I was 3 years old again so I don't hurt as much as I'm hurting.”
