Army capt. from Santa Fe killed
West Point grad shot in Colorado Springs
SANTA FE — It was while the Santa Fean was an exchange student living in China that Daniel Chamberlain Lehman, then 16, decided he was going to attend West Point.
His mother, Laurie Chamberlain Lehman, remembers her son telling her about his plans to attend the military academy when she went to visit him at Christmastime during his school year abroad.
“When Daniel made up his mind, and planned something, he was going to do it,” she recalled Tuesday.
Army Capt. Daniel Lehman, 28 — who did grad-
uate from West Point, with a double major in nuclear physics and philosophy — was killed in Colorado Springs over the weekend. His body was found early Saturday.
Police believe Lehman was shot near a downtown intersection between 1:55 and 2 a.m. Saturday. Colorado Springs police spokesman Howard Black could provide no additional information about the shooting Thursday but pointed out the narrow time frame for when the shooting apparently took place.
“If anyone saw him in the downtown business district in any of our lounges, we want to be notified of that,” said Black.
Lehman, who grew up in Santa Fe, had been stationed in Fort Carson, just outside Colorado Springs. He’d been back in the U.S. for several months after returning from a recent tour in eastern Europe, according to his mother. Before that, Lehman had served in Afghanistan.
Lehman’s obituary, posted by French Funerals of Albuquerque and written by his mother, called the slaying a “senseless act of violence.” Her son, she wrote, was “a true world citizen.”
“He was doing so well and accomplished so much, and he was such a wonderful person,” Lehman’s father, Danny Lehman of Santa Fe, told the Journal on Thursday. He described his son’s death as a loss for not only the family, but for the country he served.
Capt. Lehman, who served in military intelligence, was born in Los Angeles but moved to Santa Fe with his family as an infant.
His father, a travel photographer, used to take the family to places such as Peru and Mexico when on assignments for outlets including National Geographic. This exposure to different cultures when he was young probably influenced his son’s worldview, Danny Lehman said.
“He cared a lot about the United States, but I also think he cared about the United States and its relationship with other countries, other cultures, other things,” he said. “He saw (the country’s) appreciation of other cultures and places as an important part of having stability here.”
Capt. Lehman graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe a decade ago. A recommendation from U.S. Sen. Tom Udall helped him get into West Point. He also was accepted into the Naval and Air Force academies.
His obituary noted several of Lehman’s other talents. He was fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, a champion high school chess player in school, won awards as a trumpet player and wrote essays and poetry.
His mother described her outgoing son as an avid reader of everything from current events to New Mexico historical fiction. “He always had a book in his hand,” she said.
Danny Lehman also remembers his son as a lover of language and culture. One morning that sticks out in his memory was when his teenage son had pulled an all-nighter. He initially thought the boy maybe stayed up too late playing video games. But that wasn’t it.
“He was studying Portuguese all night,” he recalled.
“It was different in that way,” he said. “Most kids don’t do things like that.”
Capt. Daniel Lehman’s burial will take place at Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia.