The screams of a teen caught the attention of Casey Franchot while eating at a Taco Bell. "My baby's been shot! My baby's been shot!" Shayanne Nelson yelled while holding an infant in a blood-soaked blanket. The 43-year-old former US Army medic dropped his food and dashed across the busy the historic Route 66 highway in Gallup, New Mexico to a motel to investigate.

He found what police described as a chaotic scene involving a distraught mother, a baby with a gunshot wound to the face, a confused 3-year-old boy and boyfriend trying to wipe away evidence. The scene also, a family member says, was the latest in a series of tragic episodes linked to a controlling boyfriend and a poor, Navajo teenage mom who hasn't fully recovered from the death of her fiance.