Ranchos standoff ends in three arrests
New Mexico State Police arrested three men at a Ranchos de Taos residence on Thursday (Jan. 10), bringing a peaceful resolution to a standoff that lasted more than five hours.
The incident began when police received an anonymous Taos County Crime Stoppers tip that Eduardo Alonzo Rivera, 29, a wanted felon, was at his residence at 86 Camino de Corazón.
Officers asked him to come out of the home, but Rivera allegedly refused to comply and then barricaded himself inside.
Police responded by sending in a crisis negotiation team and tactical vehicles, including one that is used to breach walls and provide officers with cover. Numerous other law enforcement vehicles and officers surrounded the residence, as well as deputies from the Taos County Sheriff’s Office, who assisted in shutting down roadways in the area.
After more than five hours, negotiators and tactical team members were able to persuade Rivera to surrender. Burglary in Black Lake
The 29-year-old was wanted on a warrant out of Colfax County for residential burglary, burglary of a vehicle, conspiracy to commit criminal damage to property and other charges connected to a break-in at a home in Black Lake in 2017.
A deputy with the Colfax County Sheriff’s Office began collecting evidence at the home, including wood chisels that were used to pry open doors. Suspecting they might contain DNA evidence, he submitted them for testing at the state crime lab. Searching the area around the home, he also found that a 2011 Subaru had been stolen from the driveway. Around where it was parked, he photographed shoe prints he believed might belong to one suspect.
In December 2017, Taos Adult Probation and Parole officers arrested a wanted man, Samuel Elliot, who was found behind the wheel of a stolen Subaru. Taos Police detectives identified the vehicle as the Subaru that had been stolen from the home in Black Lake.
By matching photos of the shoe prints the Colfax deputy had taken at the scene of the burglary with shoes Elliot wore during the arrest, the deputy was able to charge Elliot as the first suspect in the break-in. Wanted men
In April, Rivera was arrested on outstanding warrants related to domestic violence incidents that took place at a residence not far from the location of the Jan. 10 standoff.
Meanwhile, state crime lab investigators tested DNA samples on the wood chisels found in Black Lake. They returned results in August that suggested Rivera as a second suspect in the home burglary. The deputy then met with Rivera at the Taos County Adult Detention Center and took a DNA sample from the inside of his cheek. It matched the lab’s results from the chisels, giving him probable cause to arrest the 29-yearold as the second suspect in the burglary.
In September, Rivera appeared for an arraignment on
12 counts related to the burglary. While a Colfax judge set a cash bond in that case, Judge Sarah Backus ruled to release Rivera from jail on his personal recognizance later that month on the domestic violence charges.
After the Jan. 10 standoff in Ranchos, police charged Rivera with one count of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, making it his third pending case in Taos County.
According to state police, he has several other open charges filed against him in Colorado, including counts of fraud, concealing identity, shoplifting, residential burglary, aggravated battery, aggravated fleeing and others.
Two other men, Armando Medrano, 25, and Aaron Andrew Gordon, 33, were also arrested at the residence.
Medrano, who is from El Prado, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for shoplifting and possessing drug paraphernalia. Gordon was arrested for resisting arrest on Thursday and transferring or receiving a motor vehicle.
State police are continuing to investigate the incident.