Man killed in Chamita shooting identified
No arrests have been made one week after incident
New Mexico State Police have identified Fernando Martinez, 35, of Española as the man killed in a Rio Arriba County shooting last week that injured three other people.
Nearly a week later, no one has been charged in the man’s death, and state police have released little information about the incident in Chamita, a tiny community a few miles north of Española where nearly every property is closed off behind metal gates and fences, with “no trespassing” signs in clear view.
State police said Martinez was one of six people in an SUV that was fired upon early March 11 after pulling onto property along Rio Arriba County Road 56. He was found dead in the third row of seats in the Chevrolet Tahoe when officers arrived.
A woman and two men who were wounded by gunshots were taken to a local hospital for treatment, state police said, while two other people in the Tahoe were uninjured.
Less than 48 hours after the shooting, the neighborhood was quiet again, and there was no sign of a crime scene at 89A, the property where police say the shooting occurred.
The small, gray home had two
missing windows, and a gate was destroyed. State police said the driver of the Tahoe, in a panic during the event, had driven through a fence between two lots. Two visible warning signs hung from the edge of the home’s roof, one reading, “No trespassing — violators will be shot — survivors will be shot again!!!”
Neighbors walking down the street the day after the shooting said they knew nothing about the incident or the people who lived at the home. One person said they had been out of town when it happened.
State police detained six people who were barricaded in the home when officers arrived, Lt. Mark Soriano said last week. According to a statement from state police, they surrendered peacefully after a standoff.
The statement said residents of the home told the people in the Tahoe to “get out of the property” before they began shooting at the vehicle.
The surviving shooting victims told officers that after the gunfire stopped, they were approached by a bald man who asked, “Do you want some more?”
Last week, Soriano said he was unable to comment on whether the people in the Tahoe knew the residents.
He wrote in an email Wednesday, “State Police have yet to make an arrest in the Chamita homicide investigation. … Agents do however have person(s) of interest.”
Soriano said no additional information about the case was available.
“When additional information is available, it will be sent out via a press release,” he wrote.