William Melhado
News
City employees clear tape from the crime scene on Thursday morning at the intersection of Rufina Street and Siler Road.
Late Wednesday evening, a Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man on Siler Road, just north of Rufina Street.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were sent to Lopez Lane to investigate an aggravated assault earlier in the evening and the assault victim provided deputies with a description of the vehicle the accused was driving.
“Deputies encountered the vehicle and driver in the area of Lopez Lane. The deputies were going to effect a traffic stop when the driver jumped a curb in his pick up to evade deputies. Deputies attempted to pursue the vehicle but called the pursuit off after the stolen black Ford pick-up eluded them,” wrote sheriff spokesman Juan Rios in response to questions from SFR.
They later called off the chase and issued an alert for the vehicle. Then, deputies working a later shift found a man driving the truck around 11 pm.
The second pair of deputies chased the truck again, eventually forcing the driver to pull over near the intersection of Siler and Rufina, according to statements issued by both State Police and Rios.
That’s when the man exited the truck and pointed a handgun at deputies, the State Police release reads.
“Deputies fired at the suspect, striking him,” it continues. “The suspect succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced on scene deceased by the Office of the Medical Investigator.”
Neither State Police nor the Sheriff’s Office has identified either the deputies or the man they shot. Rios said the deputies, one of whom fatally shot someone else while working for a different law enforcement agency, have been placed on a three-day standard administrative leave period.
This marks the second time cops have fatally shot someone in 12 hours—after a Santa Fe Police Department officer shot and killed a man outside Loretto Chapel around 11 am Wednesday.
Dried blood stained the road outside Ferguson Plumbing Supply on Thursday morning—evidence of Wednesday night’s deadly shooting—hours after police had cleared the scene.
Nixon Morris, the business’ branch manager, had asked his team to come to work early on Thursday morning to get a head start on their inventory. But when he and several other employees arrived around 5 am, the whole area was blocked off.
Morris says he and his coworkers noticed a dark, late-90s Ford Ranger sitting in the middle of Siler Road. ”That’s what we saw when we got here and that’s what they hauled off on the flatbed,” Morris tells SFR.
The man’s body was still lying in the street directly outside his business well into Thursday morning.
William Melhado
News
A blood stain on Siler Road from where a man was shot by a Santa Fe County sheriff deputy on Wednesday night.Ron’s Auto Lube stands across Siler from Morris’s business. The car wash is open 24/7.
“This place rocks at night time,” Ron Herrera, owner of the oil change outfit, says. He tells SFR that there was someone washing their car while the shooting occurred around 11:30 pm.
Steven Montoya, who lives just off Rufina Street, also heard shots fired Wednesday night. He heard some yelling prior to the shooting, but he had heard that the trouble started on West Alameda Street before traveling south on Siler Road.
With another fatal police shooting investigation that’ll eventually land in her office to review for possible criminal prosecution, First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies issued a statement Thursday morning, saying: “Our office pledges full transparency to the public. We must allow the state police investigation to continue unimpeded, and we await the results of a comprehensive investigation, at which time we will communicate fully with the public.”
Details provided by the City of Santa Fe related to the shooting on Wednesday pointed to an earlier incident at De Vargas Park which led SFPD officers to pursue a man down East Alameda Street. Witnesses say the man was holding a gun while walking up Old Santa Fe Trail before police fired on him.
According to the city, Kalin Addison shot a woman in the park, seriously wounding her, then handed the gun to the man who was later shot by officers. Police say that man also fired a shot at the park victim.
Addison was arrested and charged Wednesday with with attempted murder, aggravated battery and tampering with evidence.
The city has not identified the man shot by an officer or the officer who shot.
Editor’s note: This story was updated Thursday evening with information from the county sheriff’s office.
