Man arrested in connection with fatal shooting
Victim found in doorway of midtown residence; suspect claims self-defense
Santa Fe police made a quick arrest in a homicide early Monday morning.
According to a news release the department issued Monday afternoon, 33-year-old Edwin Anaya was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after officers responded to a call at 2:18 a.m. saying someone had been shot at a residence on Rancho Siringo Road.
Officers found Anaya at an intersection in the midtown neighborhood and questioned him about the incident. He was arrested soon after, the statement said.
According to a criminal complaint the agency filed later Monday, Anaya was bleeding from his face and nose when officers arrived at the scene and was difficult to understand when he tried to speak with officers. He gave officers a handgun and told them he had acted in self-defense when he shot 40-year-old Peter Gurule at a home nearby.
Anaya was diagnosed with a broken nose at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, the criminal complaint said. He was being held late Monday at the Santa Fe County jail.
Gurule, whom officers found in a doorway to a residence, had a fatal gunshot wound to his torso, the news release said.
The criminal complaint said Anaya told officers he “was trying to get away and he wouldn’t let me.”
Court records do not indicate Anaya has a criminal history in New Mexico.
Some neighbors on Rancho Siringo Road who spoke with
The New Mexican said they heard police activity in the early morning hours but didn’t have any knowledge about the incident.
The Rancho Siringo homicide is at least the third in Santa
Fe in the first weeks of 2021.
Police are continuing to investigate the Jan. 8 shooting death of Arizona resident Frank Pete in the Las Palomas apartment complex on Hopewell Street, also in the midtown area.
The department has not named a suspect in the killing.
Another homicide occurred sometime around Jan. 1 at a Cerrillos Road motel. Alvin Crespin, 45, was arrested Jan. 5 after police found the body of a man decomposing in a bathtub in a room at the GreenTree Inn in central Santa Fe.
According to the criminal complaint, the man had strangulation wounds around his neck, as well as stab wounds to his neck, hip, abdomen and chest. Police have not publicly identified him.
A man who reported the body and said he had been in the motel room told police the deceased man might have been dead for four days.
Police said they believed Crespin was transient and that his room had been paid for by a nonprofit that serves the homeless.