Authorities release name of man killed in Barona shooting

Authorities have identified a 32-year-old man who was shot and killed on the Barona Indian Reservation, where the body of a missing 3-year-old boy was later found in a garage, hidden under food in a freezer.

The man’s name was Julio Ricardo Monggiotti, according to said Lt. John Maryon of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Detail.

The child’s name has not been released.

Monggiotti was shot and killed, allegedly by 32-year-old Elaina Rose Welch, who was booked shortly before 1 a.m. yesterday on suspicion of two counts of murder, following a 90-minute standoff at a residence in the 1500 block of Quincy Canyon Road, sheriff’s officials said.

Welch was being held without bail.

A family member told U-T San Diego that Monggiotti was Welch’s boyfriend and the boy was her son, Roland.

The chain of events that led to her arrest began shortly after noon Friday, when the sheriff’s department got a call from a woman who said her child was dead. About the same time, someone reported a suicide attempt to Barona Tribal Enforcement, Maryon said.

A tribal enforcement officer spoke to a man outside the house, then heard a gunshot shortly after the man went back inside, Maryon said. A woman, later identified as Welch, left the house carrying a shotgun, then dropped the weapon on a dirt road.

A SWAT team and crisis negotiators were sent to the location and the woman was arrested, sheriff’s officials said.

Sheriff’s homicide investigators searched the residence and found Monggiotti, who was dead with gunshot wounds to his chest and wrist, and the boy’s body, Maryon said.

An autopsy on the child would be conducted by the medical examiner’s office next week, he said.

“Once the autopsy is conducted we should be able to positively identify the child and release the name,” Maryon said.

Nearby Barona Charter School was briefly locked down during the incident.

Brittany Wallace, who told U-T San Diego she lives on the reservation and is married to one of Welch’s cousins, said that Welch also has a daughter, but authorities removed her from the woman’s care several years ago.

Welch and Monggiotti engaged in domestic disputes in front of the child and Welch was known to pull guns on people, Wallace told the newspaper.