Deputies find suspicious notes before fatal standoff
Officers allegedly find bomb-making recipes in apartment of suspect who threw makeshift explosives at cops
When Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Deputies Carolina Aguayo-Hernandez and Tracy Baca walked into Anthony Benavidez’s cluttered apartment last week they found black-painted walls, foil-covered windows and a foul smell. They also were alarmed to find what they suspected were recipes for homemade bombs.
Investigators on Monday didn’t confirm whether what the deputies found were, in fact, bomb-making recipes. But a 20-minute video that Aguayo-Hernandez’s lapel camera recorded as the deputies entered the apartment to evict Benavidez for not paying his rent provides new information about what preceded an incident the following day that evolved into the Santa Fe Police Department’s second officer-involved shooting this year.
During a standoff at the apartment Wednesday, investigators say, Benavidez threw two non-functioning explosive devices at police before officers eventually entered the apartment and shot the man, who died later at the hospital. His mother has said was schizophrenic.
State police, who have taken over the investigation into the incident, didn’t respond to questions for comment Monday.
The video recording released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office began about 10 a.m. last Tuesday when the two deputies arrived at Benavidez’s apartment, Tuscany at St. Francis near Miguel Chavez Road, to serve eviction papers. The deputies are with a man who presumably
works for the complex and is seen using an electric drill on Benavidez’s door.
The video shows Aguayo-Hernandez walk around the outside of the apartment and open a window that had been covered with aluminum foil. As she enters through the window she sees Benavidez sitting on the floor by himself. She later told her partner that she was startled when she saw Benavidez sitting there, almost motionless, the video shows.
She handcuffs him and puts him in her patrol car, where he waits for an ambulance that takes him to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center for medical and mental evaluation.
Inside the apartment, Aguayo-Hernandez, Baca and a Santa Fe police officer who had arrived at the midtown apartment are heard and seen on the recording wondering if the writing on white pieces of notebook paper is bomb-making formulas.
“He’s cooking something,” Baca says.
“He’s cooking something?” Aguayo-Hernandez asks.
“Mira, este libro,” Baca tells Aguayo-Hernandez in Spanish as she picks up what appears to be a school textbook with the title Chemical Principles.
“I’m telling you something is up,” Aguayo-Hernandez responds.
As Aguayo-Hernandez goes over the papers, she tells the Santa Fe police officer, “Is he trying to make a bomb or something, because look at this.” Her lapel camera focuses on a recipe titled “hamburger buns,” which she reads aloud.
“This has to be something,” Aguayo-Hernandez says before she turns off her lapel camera.
After Benavidez was evaluated at the hospital, police say, he returned to the apartment later that night and broke a window to gain entry.
The next morning, state police say, Benavidez stabbed his mental health caseworker, barricaded himself inside the apartment and threw the two ineffective explosive devices at officers who were outside the apartment. After an hour of negotiations, Santa Fe police SWAT team members entered the apartment to arrest him and two officers fired multiple shots, according to state police.
The caseworker was treated and released from the hospital. No officers were injured in the incident.
City officers had moved to arrest Benavidez because the homemade devices endangered the public and the officers, state police said. Police have not provided more details about what immediately preceded the gunfire and haven’t said whether the gunshots caused his death at the hospital later Wednesday.
Elizabeth Palma, the dead man’s mother, said Monday she didn’t want to comment. She had previously told The New Mexican that she questioned how the hospital handled her son’s case. She said the hospital should have sent him to the state Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M., where he could be treated for his mental illness.
Arturo Delgado, a spokesman for Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, declined to comment Monday, citing federal privacy laws.
“Our hearts go out to the family of all affected by this horrible tragedy,” he said in a statement. “Concerning patient admissions, it is our policy to honor each patient’s individual rights and decisions within the parameters of state and federal law.”
State police say results of their investigation, along with a report on an earlier, unrelated officer-involved shooting death, will be forwarded to the First Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna in Santa Fe.
In the earlier case, which also is still under investigation, police say Andrew Lucero, 28, in late April led officers on a high-speed chase in a stolen car before officers confronted him outside an Eldorado home. Police video shows Lucero tried to flee in a Santa Fe police patrol car but that during a struggle to stop him Officer Leonard Guzman shot and killed Lucero.