Not realizing the seriousness of the wound, the besiegers warned that if he did not surrender the house would be burned down around him. Receiving no answer, they set the fire. When the house was about half consumed, his comrade ran to the door and threw up his hands, declaring repeatedly that he did not know the whereabouts of Manuel. Finding it true that he was not inside, the deputies returned to the first house and tore holes through the side and the roof until they could see a body on the bed covered by a blanket. Several slugs fired into the bed jerked aside the blanket to reveal an apparently lifeless hand. Shot six or eight times the body was draped with Russell's pistol, belt, and cartridges. There was no extra horse so it was left to his comrades who, though numbering in the fifties, had stood around on the hillside nearby without firing a shot during the entire attack.

Early the next morning, a Mexican telephoned Pels that Celso Chavez, one of the posse members, was surrounded by ten Mexicans at his father's home on the upper Vermejo. The sheriff and District Attorney Mills hastily swore out a number of warrants against men who had been riding about armed, according to signed statements by Chavez and Dr. I. P. George, and ordered Deputy Barney Clark of Raton to rescue the posseman. Traveling all night, Clark and twelve men arrived at about seven o'clock May 22. Occasionally they heard gun-shot signals and a number of horsemen were sighted on the hills, disappearing at the posse's approach. A Mexican justice of the peace had issue a writ against Chavez for taking part in the ``murder'' of Manuel Gonzales so he and his father were anxious to be taken out of danger. The men helped them gather their belongings and escorted them to Raton along with three other families desiring to leave.