Man sought after chase ends in gunfire
Deputy who fired shots at oncoming truck after failed traffic stop on leave
The Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office is looking for a man it accuses of fleeing from a deputy following an attempted traffic stop early Friday morning that led to a chase, an intentional collision and an officerinvolved shooting.
Carlos Alonso-Villa, 26, is wanted on felony charges of aggravated assault and aggravated fleeing from an officer. He is accused of evading a traffic stop, leading the deputy on a dangerous pursuit and then ramming his truck into the deputy’s car around 1:30 a.m. Friday in a neighborhood off Agua Fría Street, according to a news release from New Mexico State Police and an arrest warrant affidavit filed in the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
State police, meanwhile, are investigating the deputy, who fired three shots at the driver’s-side door of the suspect’s truck, the news release says.
While state police said they would not name the deputy until the investigation is complete, the affidavit identifies him as Deputy Blaine Lattin.
Sheriff ’s office spokesman Juan Ríos said the deputy has been placed on paid administrative leave until the investigation is complete.
According to state police, the deputy was patrolling N.M. 599 when a blue Ford pickup driving south blew past him.
The driver refused to stop, the news release says, continuing southbound on N.M. 599.
The arrest-warrant affidavit, which provides more details of the incident, says the pickup was speeding, swerving and “unable to maintain its lane of travel.” Alonso-Villa led Lattin on a chase that reached up to 80 mph, the document says, and at one point, the truck was driving in the wrong lane on West Alameda Street.
Alonso-Villa turned down Dail Circle and Willy Road, in a neighborhood that lies between Rufina and Agua Fría streets near Ramirez Thomas Elementary School. When he reached a dead end, the state police statement says, he turned his truck around to face Lattin’s cruiser.
The deputy had gotten out of the cruiser, according to the affidavit, and when Alonso-Villa started driving toward the vehicle, Lattin fired the three shots.
Alonso-Villa sideswiped the deputy’s car and kept driving, the court document says.
An officer with the Santa Fe Police Department responding to the incident arrived just as the deputy was firing the shots, according to state police, and followed the blue Ford. He found it stopped in the middle of Willy Road.
The city officer found a woman inside the truck, the news release says, but Alonso Villa had escaped the scene on foot.
The woman told the officer she had just met Alonso-Villa on Thursday evening at the Camel Rock Casino in Tesuque. She approached him, she said, and asked for a ride back to Santa Fe, according to the affidavit.
The pair didn’t talk along the ride, she said, before the man, who had called himself “Jose,” tried to evade police.
“I can see why the cop would think he was gonna run him over,” she told the officer.
According to other interviews with Alonso-Villa’s friends and family, recounted in the arrest warrant affidavit, he has addiction problems, doesn’t have a place to live and was driving the Ford truck without permission.
A friend of Alonso-Villa’s told sheriff ’s deputies that the pair had been gambling at Camel Rock Casino, when Alonso-Villa asked to borrow the keys to his truck so he could take a nap.
When the friend was done gambling a few hours later, he affidavit says, he went outside and discovered his truck was gone. He found out about the chase when deputies approached him later, after he had gone back inside the casino to gamble.
The affidavit says deputies also interviewed Alonso-Villa’s older brother, who told them Alonso-Villa was homeless and addicted to heroin. He won’t let Alonso-Villa stay at his residence, the brother said, because of the younger man’s “addiction and aggressive behavior.”
Court records show AlonsoVilla has a criminal history that includes a guilty plea for a charge of attempting to receive stolen property.
The affidavit says he also has five unrelated outstanding warrants for his arrest.
State police are asking anyone with information about the shooting or about Alonso-Villa to call 505-827-9066.