State police arrest Pecos man after 2-hour standoff

26-year-old charged with aggravated assault, abuse of child, other counts

New Mexico State Police arrested a Pecos man after a two-hour standoff Monday. Police responded with officers, a bomb squad, a tactical team and crisis negotiators.

According to an affidavit for arrest warrant, Dean George Romero was charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of abuse of a child, one count of aggravated battery, one count of interference with communications and one count of criminal damage to property.

Romero, 26, would not leave his home when officers went to execute an arrest warrant for those charges around 6 a.m. Monday. The state police tactical team had to remove him, state police spokesman Dusty Francisco wrote in an email Friday.

The Albuquerque Police Department’s tactical team and K-9 unit assisted in the arrest, Francisco wrote, and officers used tear gas and a bean bag gun.

Romero was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital with what police believe were self-inflicted injuries to his neck, Francisco wrote.

Romero was booked Thursday at the Santa Fe County jail and released Friday, according to online booking records.

Arthur Bustos, Romero’s public defender, said he believes his client is now in custody at the San Miguel

County jail. That jail’s online inmate search function was not working Friday, and jail administrators did not return messages asking if Romero was in their custody.

The affidavit states that

Romero was intoxicated when he threatened to shoot a woman and her two children Jan. 22 at a home in Pecos. He also is accused of choking the woman and throwing her to the ground.

As he was loading ammunition into a rifle, the two broke out into a struggle, the woman said. But

Romero overpowered her and pointed the rifle directly at her face, the woman told police. Romero also destroyed her cellphone.

After grabbing a pistol, Romero barricaded himself in a room. But the woman told police she was afraid to leave the house with her children because she believed Romero might shoot at them from the bedroom window, which she said is directly above

where her car was parked.

According to online court records, Romero is on probation for an aggravated DWI charge from January 2018, which is scheduled to end March 27. He was charged with driving with a suspended license, which he lost because of the 2018 drunken driving charges, in May 2019.

Romero appeared Friday in San Miguel County Magistrate

Court, where Magistrate Christian Montano placed him on a no bond hold for violating the terms of his release in connection to his charge of driving with a suspended license, court records show.

He is scheduled to appear Tuesday in San Miguel County Magistrate Court to review his conditions of release related to the aggravated assault, battery and child abuse charges.