‘They’re not just problems’
As community gathers to honor those who died in 2023, advocates decry alleged dragging of man this week
Widespread frustration over a rising number of people in the homeless community — in particular those suffering from severe mental illness or addiction — can make people forget their sense of humanity, an advocate said Thursday.
Karina Lopez, executive director of the Interfaith Community Shelter at Pete’s Place, reflected on an incident earlier this week in which two men are accused of chaining a homeless man to the front of a Jeep and dragging him across a gas station parking lot.
Police say Julian Perez had been sleeping in front of a Speedway convenience store on Agua Fría Street. When two employees were unable to wake him late Monday night, they chained him by his ankles to the front of a Jeep and then dragged him from the spot, investigators allege.
Adrian Montoya, 31, and Jonathan Gomez, 22, were arrested on multiple felony counts, including kidnapping, and booked in the Santa Fe County jail early Tuesday morning. They were released Wednesday after being arraigned on the charges.
Perez was taken to a local hospital for treatment of minor road-rash injuries and was released Monday night, Santa Fe police Capt. Bryan Martinez said Thursday.
Lopez “had the reaction that most people had” to news of the incident, she said: She was “heartbroken.”
“It’s easy to forget that that’s a person — a human being that you’re chaining up and dragging,” Lopez said. “It’s hard to believe somebody would do that and think that’s OK. And yet, that happened.”
The incident came just days ahead of a memorial service Thursday to honor 36 members of the local homeless community who have died in the past year. Organizers of the annual remembrance ceremony aimed to humanize those who had lived on the streets in Santa Fe and died from a variety a causes, some of them preventable.
It’s easy to forget that that’s a person — a human being that you’re chaining up and dragging.”
Karina Lopez, executive director of the Interfaith Community Shelter at Pete’s Place
Earlier this year, a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provided a count of 3,850 homeless people throughout New Mexico on a single night in January. The count showed an increase of almost 50% from the number counted in 2022.
A likely driver of the increase in homelessness, according to the report, is the sharp increase in housing costs that has outpaced average wage growth across the country.
Lopez said she believes education in the community could help to foster more understanding of the realities of homelessness, including the wide variety of circumstances that lead people to life on the streets.
“This is why we always invite people to Pete’s, to understand the services we provide but also the people we serve,” she said.
Attempts to reach Montoya and Gomez for comment on the allegations they face were unsuccessful Thursday.
Both men face charges of kidnapping, aggravated battery, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping and aggravated battery. Montoya also was charged with tampering with evidence and driving while intoxicated. Police at the scene wrote in a criminal complaint they could smell alcohol on his breath.
Police said the allegations were corroborated by video evidence. Additionally, Santa Fe County firefighters who pulled into the gas station witnessed Perez being dragged by the Jeep, reports say.
A criminal complaint against Gomez says he is accused of recording the incident while Montoya drove the Jeep. He posted the video to his Instagram account, where a Santa Fe officer was able to retrieve it, the complaint says.
Gomez told police he had tried calling the local nonemergency dispatch line several times to report the sleeping man before he called Montoya, his manager, according to the complaint. Police wrote in the complaint that Montoya then arrived in the Jeep.
Santa Fe County spokeswoman Olivia Romo disputes Gomez’s claim. She wrote in an email Wednesday the nonemergency line at the Santa Fe Regional Emergency Communications Center did not receive any such calls Monday night.
However, she wrote, the dispatch center received two 911 calls about the incident. The first came at 8:23 p.m. from a “concerned citizen” who “advised she saw a homeless man with chains on his feet, chained to a Jeep” and the second call came from Montoya one minute later, Romo wrote.
The county firefighters had arrived at the gas station to get fuel for a firetruck and advised Montoya to dial 911, according to Romo’s email.
Gomez told police the firefighters had advised him to delete his video of Montoya dragging the homeless man, the criminal complaint says.
Romo wrote in the email that wasn’t true. County firefighters “did not instruct the suspect to delete the video, as this action contradicts our evidence-collection policies,” she wrote. “Instead, our firefighters were coincidentally present at the Speedway refueling and promptly provided medical assistance once the scene was safe.”
She did not provide an interview with firefighters who were at the scene Monday night. She said none of them were available to discuss the incident Wednesday or Thursday.
County fire officials “were notified of the incident immediately after” it occurred, she wrote in the email, and the department “has reviewed the incident to ensure all proper actions were taken.”
Martinez, the police captain, also cast doubt on Gomez’s claim a firefighter instructed him to delete the video.
“As far as I know, that’s not true,” Martinez said. “That’s outside their protocol — it doesn’t make any sense that they would say something like that.”
Tony Watkins, a program director at the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, said the Speedway incident points to symptoms of a society in which homeless people are often “dehumanized.”
“Some people associate homelessness with crime when they’re often more vulnerable to being targets of crime,” Watkins said in an interview. “They are people with families and stories and histories — we should honor them as human beings.”