Complaint: High-five snub led to threat, arrest

A Jemez Pueblo man who apparently didn’t take kindly to being left hanging after offering a high-five has been charged with threatening a group of kids with a gun.

Dylon Sandia, 27, made his initial appearance last Thursday in federal court in Albuquerque in connection with the incident that happened in July 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

A criminal complaint charging Sandia with child abuse was filed in December and he was arrested last Wednesday, according to court records.

According to the complaint, officers were called to a report of an aggravated assault on five children on the Jemez Pueblo and found the kids — ranging in age from 12 to 16 — “visibly upset.”

They told police they were walking down a road when a large sport utility vehicle with two people inside drove by.

“The passenger tried to ‘high-five’ the children but they did not acknowledge this person stating ‘he looked scary,’” the complaint reads.

The children said the passenger — whom they identified as Sandia — “used profanity towards them and the vehicle drove off.”

The kids told officers the SUV stopped and backed up a short distance and Sandia pointed a long-barrel gun at them, prompting them to run to a relative’s home, where police were called.

Officers found Sandia a short time later “in an intoxicated state” outside the SUV and with .410 caliber shotgun shells in his pocket. A gun wasn’t found.

Police said Sandia — interviewed after waiving his rights — admitted to being driven around the pueblo and that he did have an unloaded gun with him.

He denied knowledge of the alleged incident with the children, saying he “blacked out after drinking a beer.”

He couldn’t remember what he did with the gun, police said.

It’s unclear from court documents why there was a lag time between the alleged incident, charges being filed and the arrest, and the spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque didn’t respond to a request for clarity.