Mother of Austin officer killed 30 years ago today wants killer executed.

By Tony Plohetski
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, May 18, 2008

The doorbell rang at 2 a.m. that Thursday, but Betsy Ablanedo refused to think the worst.

Maybe it was only a stranded motorist. Or a troubled neighbor.

Then she heard her husband's voice and others that she recognized.

She went to the living room to confront the news.

She looked into the tearful eyes of her daughter-in-law, Judy Ablanedo. She also saw Bruce Mills, the young officer who patrolled with her son, with blood on his uniform.

"Right away, I said, 'Is it Ralph, and is he dead?' " Betsy Ablanedo said. "Judy said, 'Yes, he is.' "

Austin police officer Ralph Ablanedo was fatally shot during a traffic stop about two hours earlier.

Mills was already responding to the scene to serve as Ablanedo's backup on May 18, 1978, when he thought he heard a scream on the radio. When Mills got to the 900 block of Live Oak Street near Travis High School, Ablanedo was on the ground and uttered something about a Mustang and a gun as Mills shouted for the dispatcher to send an ambulance.

Paramedics took the 26-year-old to the hospital, but the doctors could do little. He had been hit by 10 bullets.

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