A Delco man who killed two of his co-workers told a judge that he acted in self-defense

Wilbert Rosado-Ruiz’s fate was placed Wednesday in the hands of a Delaware County judge, who, in the coming week, will determine whether the shooting he committed where he worked, killing two people and wounding three others, was justified or an act of murder.

At the close of his bench trial on murder, attempted murder and related crimes for the May 2024 shooting, Rosado-Ruiz, 63, testified that he felt his life was in danger and acted in self-defense. A group of his coworkers at Delaware County Linen had ganged up on him, he said, cornering him in the industrial laundry facility and threatening to kill him and his family.

He had to shoot his way to safety, he said, because he knew at least two of them were armed with knives he had caught glimpses of.

“I’m a person who would never try to hurt anyone,” he said. “Anyone who is inoffensive to me, anyone who would not try to hurt me, I would not try to hurt.

“Now, if someone does try to make a move on my life, yes, I am someone who is armed, and I would defend myself.”

Rosado-Ruiz’s attorney, Kevin O’Neill, urged Judge Kevin Kelly to acquit his client of all charges, saying he reacted to what he believed to be credible threats to his life and the lives of his loved ones.

Assistant District Attorney Sophia Polites balked at that explanation during her closing arguments Wednesday. None of the victims were armed, and surveillance footage from the Chester business showed them running for their lives as Rosado-Ruiz chased them from room to room.

Rosado-Ruiz, she said, shot at his fleeing coworkers because he wanted to, not because he needed to. He believed, she said, they had disrespected him.

“This was not a decision made out of fear. This was about his ego,” Polites said. “One by one, the people he perceived to have disrespected him, they became his targets.”

Brothers Leovanny Peña Peña, 30, and Giguenson Peña Peña, 26, were killed by Rosado-Ruiz after he clocked in for his early-morning shift.

Testimony during the trial showed that Rosado-Ruiz got into an altercation with another coworker, Nilamarie Valdivieso, while on a video call with his wife and daughter. Valdivieso testified that she approached Rosado-Ruiz to ask him why he was angry, and he responded explosively, screaming that he was “tired of all these people,” before pulling out his 9mm handgun and shooting Valdivieso in the shoulder.

But Rosado-Ruiz offered a different version of that initial encounter. He testified that Valdivieso hurled insults at him before threatening to cut his head off.

The Peña Peña brothers, as well as other coworkers, joined Valdivieso, Rosado-Ruiz said, and formed a crowd to block him from leaving the room. He said he saw that the two brothers were carrying knives, and moved toward him in a threatening manner.

That’s when, he said, he opened fire.

“I waited, and I really thought nothing would happen,” he said. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Rosado-Ruiz remained on the video call with his family throughout the initial encounter and eventual shooting, but his wife and daughter testified that they could not see or hear the shooting as it took place.

But evidence in the case, including surveillance footage of the encounter, Polites, the prosecutor said, showed that the people around Rosado-Ruiz scattered at the sight of his gun.

After shooting Valdivieso, he shot Leovanny Peña Peña three times before chasing after the other people who fled. Rosado-Ruiz caught up with Giguenson Peña Peña after he had exited the building, and shot him as he ran away from him, according to prosecutors.

None of the victims were armed, despite what Rosado-Ruiz said he saw, Polites said.

Judge Kelly said he will deliver his verdict on July 22.