Man Shot After Fight In Tavern Suspect Has Been Convicted Twice On Drug Charges

Martin Nunez’s blood splattered across Evelyn Pedey’s front door Tuesday morning.

The Coeur d’Alene man had stumbled to the 69-year-old grandmother’s doorway, a bullet wound in his side.

“He said, ‘I’ve been shot, let me in,”’ Pedey said. “I said, ‘I won’t let you in, but I’ll call for help.”’

Nunez, 32, of Coeur d’Alene was shot at about 1:25 a.m. Tuesday after getting in a fight at a bar, according to Coeur d’Alene police. He was listed in critical condition Tuesday night at Kootenai Medical Center.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Urbano Brito Herrera, 37, also of Coeur d’Alene, on charges of attempted murder, police said.

Coeur d’Alene Police Capt. Carl Bergh said Nunez and Herrera had been at Beta’s Place tavern, 1920 Sherman Ave., sometime after midnight.

Tavern patrons said Tuesday afternoon that the two men both frequented bars on Sherman Avenue. Two patrons, who did not want to give their names, said they saw the men suddenly start to fight Tuesday morning.

They did not know what sparked the scuffle, but said a bartender then threw the men out.

A short time later, Nunez was shot in the left side with a handgun while walking in an alley near 18th Street and Lakeside, Bergh said.

“I heard three gunshots,” said Sheila Buckley a bartender who was working at the nearby Lake City Saloon and had seen Nunez earlier that evening in the bar. “I thought, ‘What in the heck is going on?”’

One bullet hit Nunez in the side, coming out the other side and piercing his arm, Bergh said.

“I heard the shots and then I heard a yell,” said Pedey, who had been unable to sleep that morning. “It didn’t sound like a pain yell. Just kind of a mad sound.”

Nunez ran to Pedey’s home at the corner of 18th and Lakeside and began kicking at her door.

Pedey ran to the front door and peered out a large peephole to find Nunez pleading for help.

“I heard him say, ‘I’m dying, I’m dying,”’ said 17-year-old Dusty Carson, Pedey’s grandson who also came to the door.

Not sure what was going on, Pedey did not let Nunez into her house.

“I didn’t know if he was running from police or running for help,” she said.

After calling police, she and her grandson kept an eye on Nunez, who collapsed in their front yard.

Nunez told the officers who arrived at the scene that he had been shot by the same man he’d been in a fight with earlier that morning, Bergh said.

Investigators believe that man was Herrera, Bergh said.

Kootenai County Court records show that Herrera was convicted of a felony drug charge in 1988 after he transported cocaine.

In 1989 he was found guilty of possession of drug paraphernalia and in 1993 he was cited for possession of marijuana.

Police were still looking for Herrera as of Tuesday evening. He was described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, with black hair and a dark complexion. He has a tattoo that says “Cuba” on his left leg.

Bergh asked anyone with information on Herrera’s whereabouts to call the Coeur d’Alene Police Department at 769-2320.

Nunez was in the intensive care unit at KMC Tuesday night, and is expected to recover, Bergh said.