Burque Media co-founder arrested
Man charged in fatal shooting in former candidate’s office
Three and a half years ago, as protests against police brutality rocked the city, a small group of activists banded together to create an alternative news outlet they called Burque Media.
Andy Christophersen told the Journal on Monday that he, Dinah Vargas and Steve Kramer eventually expanded their focus to advocate for homeless people.
So it came as a shock that Kramer is now accused of shooting and killing a man who was in the office of a former candidate for mayor on Saturday.
Vargas, who had been helping the man before he was killed, called the police. Vincent Gutierrez died on the scene.
Kramer, 42, is charged with an open count of murder and is being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center until a hearing where a judge will determine if he will stay locked up until trial.
Christophersen said the charges have stunned the local activist community. But, he said, people started noticing Kramer was having troubles about a year ago.
For instance, last November Kramer disappeared for months, Christophersen said. Eventually he resurfaced and told people he was using hard drugs and living on the streets.
He would occasionally visit Vargas at the office on the 2100 block of Central where she worked for Stella Padilla, who was trying to get on the ballot to campaign for mayor. A statement from Burque Media claims Padilla knew Kramer from community events but says he never worked on her campaign.
Christophersen said it appeared that Kramer began to see Vargas as one of the only people he could trust.
“Most of the time, he was jacked up on something and one time he stripped his clothes off and said APD had a bug on him,” he said.
The last time Kramer visited Vargas was Saturday around 10:30 p.m.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, Vargas was getting her camera from the office when Kramer appeared and was “acting strange,” whistling and talking about “losing his whistle.”
Kramer asked to use the restroom and “Ms. Vargas stated Steve appeared to be having a conversation with someone inside of the bathroom and described the one-way conversation as ‘angry’ followed by several grunts.”
That’s when Gutierrez showed up at the front door, apparently to collect some items from the office, which was shutting down.
Christophersen said Padilla and Vargas had recently befriended Gutierrez, who lived in a trailer with his partner, and had offered some of their furniture to help him get back on his feet.
Kramer sat down to talk with Gutierrez and continued to grunt and act strangely, according to the complaint.
Then, Vargas told police, she heard one pop, saw Kramer holding a gun and smoke billowing out of the barrel. Gutierrez had been shot in the stomach. Vargas ran out to Padilla’s nearby house and the two called police. When police arrived at the office building a short time later they found Kramer walking out with a gun tucked under his armpit. He was arrested.
A look at the New Mexico Courts website shows no previous criminal charges against Kramer.
Christophersen said that while he is not trying to defend what Kramer did, he is mourning the man his friend and colleague once was.
“This was one of the smartest, most compassionate people who turned into a totally different person in a very short period of time,” Christophersen said. “The streets took him. It just shows you what those drugs do, they turn normal people into something evil.”