Police use beanbag rounds to subdue woman with shears

Santa Fe police fired two beanbag rounds at a woman armed with a pair of shears after she taunted officers to shoot her during a standoff at a homeless shelter Sunday evening.

The nonlethal beanbag rounds brought down the woman, who police identified as Veronica Salas, and she was transported to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Capt. Anthony Tapia of the Santa Fe Police Department said officers were called to the Interfaith Community Shelter, 2801 Cerrillos Road, around 5:13 p.m. after receiving a call saying Salas was using garden shears to assault a man.

“Officers tried negotiating with her to get her to put the shears down,” Tapia said. “She did not comply. She told officers to shoot her. The officers tried to continue to negotiate with her, and when that was unsuccessful, they were forced to deploy two beanbag shots, which stopped her.”

Police fired one beanbag round at her upper torso, but Salas did not drop the shears, Tapia said. Officers then fired a second shot at her back.

The entire incident took about 17 minutes, Tapia said. “It was a rapidly evolving situation,” he said.

The man Salas was threatening was not hurt, Tapia said, nor were any of the officers who arrived on the scene. Tapia said the man Salas threatened was a volunteer at the shelter. He declined to press charges, saying that because he was bigger than her, he did not feel threatened.

Tapia said police will charge Salas with four counts of aggravated assault against a police officer, one charge of trespassing and one charge of being in possession of methamphetamine.

Tapia said the shelter had told the woman last week not to trespass after “something occurred.” He said he did not know what that incident was about, but a search of New Mexico court records online indicates that Salas was charged Dec. 6 with criminal trespass. The records indicate she pleaded not guilty. She has a pretrial hearing set for Jan. 25.

The shelter, also known as Pete’s Place after the pet store that used to occupy the facility, offers beds, hot showers, lunch and a clothes closet to homeless men, women and children during the winter season.

A message left on the answering machine at the shelter around 6:30 p.m. Sunday was not returned.