Landlord arrested following attack
Santa Fe police on Friday arrested a landlord who had been accused by two of his tenants of a machete attack earlier this week following a tirade outside their studio apartment on Vegas Verdes Drive.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the man and woman told Officer Robert Telles that Ronald Dalrymple, 55, started banging on their door Sunday and was “being verbally abusive,” telling the couple they needed to move out.
When Dalrymple began threatening to force his way through the door, the couple said, they went out another door to take photos and video of Dalrymple “threatening and harassing them on the scene.”
When the man began taking photos of Dalrymple’s vehicle, the affidavit said,
Dalrymple became angry and charged at the man with a “long machete” in his hand.
The man began backing away, he told the officer, but tripped on a curb. Dalrymple then stood over him and “proceeded to strike [the man] on the top of his head with the handle end of the machete,” according to the affidavit.
The man and his girlfriend ran back into their apartment and called police, the affidavit said.
Telles said in his report that he saw a red and “mildly bleeding abrasion” on the man’s head when he arrived at the scene.
Police on Monday obtained a warrant for Dalrymple’s arrest. He was booked in the Santa Fe County jail around 6 p.m. Friday, according to jail records.
The two tenants said they have been locked in an ongoing dispute with Dalrymple over their plans to turn the studio apartment into a tattoo parlor. Previous police reports have been filed over the issue, they said, which centers on their rental agreement.