Wisconsin man accused of forcing wife to play Russian roulette with him

HARTFORD, wis. (CBS 58) — A Hartford man faces several felony charges after investigators say he forced his wife to play Russian roulette, a deadly game of chance involving a loaded gun and a spun cylinder.

Archie Bonilla-Santiago,29, has been charged with:

  • First-degree recklessly endangering safety
  • False imprisonment
  • Possession of a firearm while intoxicated
  • Resisting an officer
  • Pointing a firearm at another

A neighbor -- who did not want to go on camera -- told CBS 58 that he was with Bonilla-Santiago and his wife at the Maxwell Street Day festival in Hartford on July 9. They came home at 11 p.m., and just an hour later, it turned into a scary situation.

"I just hear banging on my window," said another neighbor, Gabriella Rodriguez.

The 17-year-old was cleaning her room around midnight on July 10, when a woman outside got her attention.

"All I hear is 'help, there's a gun,'" Rodriguez remembers.

Her parents rushed the woman inside their apartment on East Lincoln Avenue.

"She's shaking, she's just so scared," Rodriguez said. "We're like, what's going on, she's like, 'he had a gun to my head just playing Russian roulette.'"

They called Hartford police, who say the woman told them her husband, Bonilla-Santiago, had loaded a revolver with one bullet, pointing it at her and pulling the trigger three times, then forcing her to do the same to him. Bonilla-Santiago told his wife at one point, according to the complaint, "I want my blood to be on your hands."

According to the criminal complaint, Bonilla-Santiago also called 911 on himself, and told them he was running away.

"They had us hiding behind a car for like 20 minutes while the cops were chasing him," Rodriguez explained.

Bonilla-Santiago eventually surrendered and was arrested.

The woman told investigators she moved from Australia just six weeks ago to live with him, and he had hidden her passport, and canceled her phone plan and credit cards.

"She told us that they met on Hinge, and that he lied about being from Australia," Rodriguez said.

Police found the gun the woman described inside Bonilla-Santiago's apartment.

The complaint says he was drunk at the time and denied trying to shoot anyone.

"It felt like a movie, literally," Rodriguez said.

One neighbor said Bonilla-Santiago is from Texas and used to be in the military.

He is in custody on a $250,000 bond.

The Hartford police chief said the woman is safe.

She told Rodriguez's family that she already has a flight booked back to Australia.

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