Man dies after U.S. 550 road rage fight
Rio Rancho man accused of murder
One Rio Rancho man is dead and another charged with murder after an apparent road rage fight erupted during rush hour on U.S. 550 this week.
The confrontation near Santa Ana Road was reported around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, when police were called to a fight between the two men on the side of U.S. 550 and witnesses said one of the men had fallen into a nearby canal, according to the Bernalillo Police Department.
When police arrived, they found 45-year-old Richard Wall of Rio Rancho face down in the water, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Sandoval County Magistrate Court. They pulled him out and he was taken to a hospital where he died.
Police Chief Tom Romero said they are waiting for an autopsy report to determine exactly how that happened.
Witnesses told officers they saw Wall and another man, later identified as Lonnie Snyder, 63, pulled over on the side of the highway, fighting. Romero said officers are investigating what led to the road rage.
They said they saw Snyder hitting Wall with his hands and with a straight metal object, possibly a crowbar, according to the affidavit.
Then, a witness told police, Snyder pushed Wall and walked away, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, “so what, he deserved it.”
Snyder drove away and two bystanders jumped into the water to try to find Wall, according to the complaint. An oxygen tank was found floating in the canal, but Romero didn’t respond to later questions about who owned it or how it got in the water.
Other witnesses wrote down the license plate number on Snyder’s car and officers tracked him down at his Rio Rancho home a couple of hours later.
He was booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center and is charged with an open count of murder.