Teen held after threatening to shoot S.F. High principal
Police believe student had rifle in truck at time of threat
Santa Fe police have arrested an 18-year-old student of an alternative public high school who is accused of telling a security guard he intended to shoot the principal of neighboring Santa Fe High because the man had ordered him to leave the campus, where he was visiting during a lunch period.
A criminal complaint says officers believe the student had a rifle in his truck at the time he made the threat earlier this week.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, Alejandro Valle asked a security guard at the Early College Opportunities School, where he is enrolled, for the name of the Santa Fe High principal around 1 p.m. Wednesday. When the guard asked Valle why he wanted to know the principal’s name, police say in the complaint, Valle replied, “I want to follow him home after school and shoot him with my AR-15.”
Valle’s girlfriend attends Santa Fe High, the complaint says, and he had been having lunch with her there Wednesday when he got into an altercation with Principal Carl Marano.
The guard quoted Valle as saying Marano “told me to get off campus and called me a punk,” according to police. The security guard notified the
ECO principal about the conversation.
In an interview with a police officer Wednesday on the ECO campus, where Valle had returned to class after speaking with the security guard, the teen said Marano had been “treating him like a kid,” according to the complaint. He was angry about the incident, Valle told the officer.
“I want to follow Mr. Marano, beat him up and shoot him,” he said.
But, the complaint says, Valle also told the officer that he did not mean his threatening words.
While he was in class, Valle’s truck disappeared from the ECO campus, alarming officials, according to the complaint. Valle later told police he had asked a friend to drive his truck off the school grounds, get the rifle out of it and then bring the truck back to ECO.
Valle’s friend told police the same story when they found him in the parking lot, according to the complaint. Police confiscated a .22-caliber rifle as evidence, the complaint says, and booked Valle in the Santa Fe County jail just after 7 p.m. Wednesday on one charge of unlawfully carrying a deadly weapon on school grounds, a fourth-degree felony.
Officers also confiscated an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle from the boy’s father, according to police reports.
Jeff Gephart, a spokesman for Santa Fe Public Schools, did not return an email seeking comment on the case.
Greg Gurulé, Santa Fe police spokesman, said in an emailed statement Thursday, “We are offering no comment on the incident.”
The incident played out Wednesday as 14-year-old Aaron Encinias, a Santa Fe High freshman, stood before a state District Court judge, requesting release from a juvenile detention center where he was being held on suspicion of writing a letter threatening a mass shooting at the school.
The judge agreed to allow house arrest for Encinias on electronic monitoring and other conditions, including his withdrawal from Santa Fe Public Schools and confirmation from relatives that he would have no access to firearms.
On Thursday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Padgett filed a motion asking Santa Fe County Magistrate George Anaya Jr. to delay Valle’s first court appearance so prosecutors could determine whether to file a motion to keep the teen detained as the case proceeds through the court system. Anaya granted the request. Valle’s first appearance, initially scheduled for Thursday, was pushed back until 1:30 p.m. Friday in Anaya’s courtroom.