On a summer day in 2022, the life of 45-year-old Hispanic/Latino male Juan Vasquez Jr. of Albert Lea, Minnesota, was tragically cut short. On August 9th, Vasquez was shot and killed at a rural property located at 75463 160th Street, just south of the city. The events that unfolded that day were the culmination of a festering dispute with another Albert Lea man, 32-year-old Ben Vidal Moreno. The conflict between the two men had reportedly stemmed from accusations of stolen methamphetamine and had escalated to a series of threats in the weeks leading up to the fatal encounter.
The situation came to a head when Vasquez, accompanied by another man, arrived at the property where Moreno was present. An earlier confrontation that day had already seen Vasquez allegedly firing two shots at Moreno and missing, after which Vasquez and his companion left for a casino in northern Iowa. Upon their return to the residence in an SUV, they were met with a volley of gunfire. Moreno, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, fired multiple rounds of buckshot into their vehicle, causing significant damage and flattening the tires.
Following the initial barrage, Vasquez exited the disabled SUV and started walking down the driveway toward the house. It was at this point that Moreno, having emptied his shotgun, armed himself with a rifle. As Vasquez approached, shouting at him with a handgun in his own pocket, Moreno fired a fatal shot, striking Vasquez in the chest. In the immediate aftermath, Moreno fled the scene in a white 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck, sparking a manhunt by law enforcement.
The search for Ben Vidal Moreno concluded more than a day later when he was apprehended at a home near Forest City, Iowa, approximately 40 miles south of Albert Lea. Evidence gathered during the investigation included recordings of phone conversations from the Freeborn County jail in which Moreno implicated himself in the crime. In March 2024, a jury found Moreno guilty of three counts of second-degree murder and two counts of illegal possession of a firearm. He was subsequently sentenced to nearly 40 years in prison for the killing of Juan Vasquez Jr. and the wounding of the other man in the vehicle.
