A still greiving father, Steve Ronnebeck, shared with Breitbart Texas on Wednesday that a Mexican cartel “executed my son.” Ronnebeck’s son was killed by an illegal alien, self-proclaimed Sinaloa cartel member. The criminal alien is now facing charges for shooting Grant Ronnebeck during the 21-year-old’s overnight shift at the Mesa, Arizona, QT convenience store.

“A man came in and wanted to buy cigarettes, dumped some change out on the counter and Grant wasn’t counting the change fast enough. The man pulled a gun, Grant offered up the cigarettes and the man executed him, shooting him in the face. Stepped over his body, grabbed two more packs of cigarettes and fled,” Ronnebeck said describing the incident that left Grant dead.

The interview with Mr. Ronnebeck came immediately following his addressing a room full of law enforcement at the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Conference in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Ronnebeck said the illegally present foreign national had a drug background, was a “self-proclaimed member of the Sinaloa cartel, the Mexican Mafia,” and committed a sex crime and burglary.

The prior burglary, according to Ronnebeck, was pleaded down from what he described as a home invasion and week-long sexual assault.

The illegal alien, now charged in the murder of Ronnebeck’s son Grant, could face the death penalty, Ronnebeck told Breitbart Texas. “The trial does not start until 2017.”

Grant’s Law, H.R. 2942, was constructed in response to the young man’s death.

Hundreds attended Grant Ronnebeck’s funeral including coworkers and customers that knew him from QT. Steve Ronnebeck told the crowd gathered for the Southwest Border Sheriffs’ Conference that QT had to bring in workers from outside Mesa to cover shifts while Grant’s coworkers attended the memorial service.

What message does Steve Ronnebeck have for other Americans?

“I know that everyone can help by getting a hold of their elected officials, their Sheriff’s Department, speak out,” Ronnebeck explained. “This is a problem that’s plagued our country for years and now it’s getting to a point where lives are being lost and it’s not on a monthly basis. It’s actually a weekly and daily basis that these illegals are killing people. And I’m not saying that all illegals are bad, I’m in no way saying that.”

Steve was asked how the loss of his son in these circumstances has effected his stance on illegal immigration.

“My son and I had talked about illegal immigration,” he responded. “Most of our conversations were the side that, what it costs us as taxpayers. Ya know the border, we’d see reports on the border and the millions and almost billions of dollars that illegals are doing to these people’s farms and the properties down there and that was the extent of our conversations. We never really heard about the darker side of this. We heard about the cartels and the wars and so on and so forth, but it never really directly effected us.”

Ronnebeck referenced a statistic that Breitbart News reported on in July: illegally present foreign nationals made up 37 per cent of federal sentences in fiscal year 2014. The report stated, “Broken down by some of the primary offenses, illegal immigrants represented 16.8 percent of drug trafficking cases, 20.0 percent of kidnapping/hostage taking, 74.1 percent of drug possession, 12.3 percent of money laundering, and 12.0 percent of murder convictions.” These numbers come despite a Pew Research estimate that illegal aliens account for only 3.5 per cent of the U.S. population.

“You can’t turn a blind eye to murder. That’s basically what they’re doing,” Ronnebeck said of cities with sanctuary city policies. The killing of Kate Steinle was a similar case to that of Grant Ronnebeck, involving an illegal alien accused of killing an American citizen. The confessed perpetrator in the Steinle case said he had previously chosen San Francisco for the city’s lax immigration enforcement policies.

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana