Police warn public after mobile home park shootings

Country Club Gardens hit over two days; no injuries

Santa Fe police are warning the public to be on the lookout for a white Dodge Challenger that might be connected to shootings Monday and Tuesday at a mobile home park on Airport Road.

No one at Country Club Gardens was injured by gunfire in either incident, but a resident’s home was hit Monday night, along with two vehicles. A woman threw her toddler granddaughter over a fence Tuesday afternoon to protect her from bullets, police reports said.

In both cases, witnesses reported seeing a white Challenger speeding from the scene.

A similar vehicle was spotted Monday night outside the Applebee’s restaurant on Cerrillos Road, where a man with a gun threatened another man, Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said in a statement emailed Wednesday.

Investigators are looking into whether surveillance video in the area might have captured that incident, he added.

Police have not identified any suspects in the cases and have released no suspected motive for the shootings.

Monday’s shooting at Country Club Gardens was reported around 10:30 p.m.

A 911 caller told a dispatcher some men had been chasing each other, and then five or six gunshots rang out, police reports said.

A woman who was outside her home at the time said she heard what she thought were fireworks, but when she realized someone was shooting a gun, she went inside, she told police. A vehicle with a loud engine left the scene at a high rate of speed, she said.

Police found two bullet holes in the front of her home, according to reports.

A pickup and an SUV at the mobile home park also were damaged by gunfire, and 10 spent bullet casings were found near the entrance to the complex, reports said.

Tuesday’s shooting at the mobile home park was reported around 5:15 p.m.

A woman told officers her 22-monthold granddaughter had been in the front yard, picking up pine cones and putting them in a box, when she heard gunshots outside, police reports said. The grandmother grabbed the toddler and threw her over a wooden fence behind the house, got her cellphone and tried to record the shooter’s vehicle, she told police. The child did not require any medical attention, police said.

The woman whose home was hit by bullets Monday night told officers Tuesday a fresh round of bullets had just struck her children’s outdoor play equipment.

One witness said the Challenger had driven into the mobile home park, braked hard and then accelerated, peeling out and sliding around the entrance to the park, reports said.

As the vehicle exited onto Airport Road, witnesses told officers, a man in the passenger seat fired gunshots.