Police say reports up in first 4 months

Acting police chief says cause hard to pin down

Last month, police believe, a teen fired two rounds at a woman trying to fight with his girlfriend, prompting a Santa Fe police SWAT team response at the Tuscany at St. Francis apartment complex in midtown and forcing students and staff at nearby schools to shelter in place.

Last week, one man allegedly attacked another man accompanying his ex-wife at a Blake’s Lotaburger on Airport Road. The suspect is accused of pointing a shotgun at his ex-wife’s companion, a criminal complaint says, then punching the man and hitting him with the butt of his gun.

And Tuesday, police asked the public for help finding a man accused of threatening his girlfriend’s family and choking her 11-year-old niece.

What do these crimes have in common?

Each of the suspects is being accused of aggravated battery or aggravated assault — crimes that collectively have increased by 30 percent year over year from January to April. There were 171 instances of aggravated battery or aggravated assault from January to April 2018, according to Santa Fe police data, compared to 132 from January to April 2017.

The one-page data sheet, provided Tuesday by the Santa Fe Police Department to the city’s Public Safety Committee, says the crime numbers are preliminary and subject to revision. And the report covers only a third of the year.

Given the diverse circumstances

behind these charges, it can be hard to pin down a particular cause for the crimes or how to prevent them.

“It’s just one of those crimes that we don’t have legit control over,” acting police Chief Andrew Padilla said, “like if it was people running a stop sign at a specific intersection and we could post someone there to pull them over.”

A crime is deemed an “aggravated” assault or battery when someone inflicts great bodily harm on another person or threatens a person with a weapon that could cause great bodily harm.

That’s different than simple assault or battery charges, which are filed when an unarmed person is accused of making a threat or inflicting harm that is less severe.

The nature of aggravated and battery is diverse, Padilla said. It could be two strangers involved in a road-rage incident, he said, or two kids fighting at school, in which one kid gets a bad cut.

“We absolutely try to educate the public as best we can,” Padilla said. “If it’s in the

schools, hey — the golden rule: Be nice to each other. Do unto others. Don’t fight.”

He doesn’t think the public needs to be particularly concerned.

“It’s not like there is a serial batterer out and about, walking around and just randomly hitting people,” Padilla said.

Other statistics in the Police Department’s data sheet, while preliminary, appeared more positive.

There were far fewer reports of criminal sexual penetration of adults through April of this year: Only four, compared to 13 last year.

And there have yet to be any homicides in Santa Fe from January to April. By the end of April last year, there already had been three.