6 jailed after shots fired at Santa Fe Place mall

Santa Fe police arrested six young people Monday night near Santa Fe Place following reports of a shootout between two vehicles in the mall’s parking lot.

The teens, all riding in the same truck, each gave officers a different story about the shooting and who among them had fired shots, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.

The document says officers responded to a call about shots fired near the mall around 5:20 p.m. Monday. A witness told dispatchers that gunshots were exchanged between a gray Dodge pickup and a black sedan.

Santa Fe County sheriff ’s deputies pulled over the pickup near Blue Corn Cafe, across the street from the mall, the complaint says, and spoke with the six people riding in it — five of whom were minors. There were at least two guns in the truck, the document says.

According to Lt. Marvin Paulk of the Santa Fe Police Department, officers also found bullet casings in the mall parking lot and inside the truck.

Passengers told police they had driven to Santa Fe from Española to meet someone at the mall. The driver, a minor, said they were parked in front of the old Sears location when he heard a loud screech and saw a black Cadillac driving toward them. He started to pull

away, the driver told officers, and that’s when he heard gunshots.

Others gave police conflicting stories.

One passenger, also a minor, said no one in the truck had fired a shot at the Cadillac, according to the complaint. Another said they did. One minor told police he knew the driver of the Cadillac, and that “they have issues with each other” because the Cadillac’s driver had accused the group in the truck of shooting at his house.

“All the individuals in the vehicle had different stories about who the shooters in their own vehicle were,” Officer Adrianne Lujan wrote in the complaint. “Due to them all having different stories and blaming each other … each individual in the vehicle was charged.”

Online court records showed that the only adult, an 18-yearold man, was charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon and five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

However, at his first Magistrate Court appearance Tuesday afternoon, the man was ordered released on his own recognizance after the judge found “no probable cause for the charges.”

The five minors were also arrested on charges of shooting at or from a motor vehicle and negligent use of a deadly weapon, Paulk said. And one was charged with possession of a controlled substance.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Paulk said, it was unclear if police had found or charged the driver of the sedan.