In the early moments of a Monday morning, the quiet of a Hillsboro, Oregon, parking lot was shattered by violence. On July 11, 2022, a 40-year-old Hispanic male named Juan Javier Moncivais was found lying on the ground in a parking lot at the corner of Southeast 11th Avenue and Southeast Walnut Street. Police responded to a report of gunshots just before 12:30 a.m. and discovered Moncivais, who had been fatally shot.
For seven hours, investigators worked the scene, shutting down Walnut Street as they began the difficult task of piecing together the events that led to his death. Initially, authorities were unable to identify the man they had found. Two days later, they publicly identified the victim as Juan Javier Moncivais, a resident of Hillsboro.
The investigation progressed rapidly, aided by surveillance footage that captured the chilling final moments of Moncivais's life. The video showed another man, later identified as Enrique Tapia-Chavez, driving into the parking lot. Tapia-Chavez was seen getting out of his car, chasing Moncivais, and firing multiple shots at him as Moncivais tried to flee. The pursuit was relentless, with Tapia-Chavez continuing to shoot Moncivais in the back multiple times. Even after Moncivais fell to the ground, the attacker shot him again in the head at close range before leaving the scene.
Armed with the stark evidence from the surveillance video, Hillsboro detectives, with the assistance of the Washington County Tactical Negotiations Team, moved to apprehend the suspect. On the Friday following the shooting, police arrested 32-year-old Enrique Tapia-Chavez. He was charged with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon and subsequently booked into the Washington County Jail. The case moved through the legal system, culminating in a trial where a jury found Tapia-Chavez guilty of second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon. A judge also found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. For the murder of Juan Javier Moncivais, Enrique Tapia-Chavez was sentenced to life in prison.
