Staff Reports



The New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau is investigating a shooting involving a Bernalillo Police Department officer.

Preliminary information indicates around 6:30 pm on Sept. 3, two BPD officers were dispatched to a shots-fired call at the KOA Campground located at 555 South Hill Road in Bernalillo. Officers were given limited information from 911 calls that Fernand “Fred” Lete, 70, of Rio Rancho, had shot another male subject inside a camp trailer at the campground and that both the victim and Lete remained inside the camp trailer.

When the officers arrived at the camp trailer and announced their presence, Lete opened the door and was armed with a...

GRANTS – At about 7 am on Sept. 1, the New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau was contacted to investigate a homicide at the San Rafael Church.

Investigators learned that around 6:30 am, the Grants Police Department was alerted to a person laying in the parking lot of the church.

Officers arrived to find Paul Valdez, 30, of San Rafael, deceased.

New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau agents as well as the State Polce Crime Scene Team were called.

Valdez’s death is being treated as a homicide. The investigation is very preliminary with no details currently available.

Anyone with any information about this homicide is asked to contact the NM State Police at (505)...

Gallup Police Department Deputy Chief Franklin Boyd was at the Gallup City Council regular meeting on Aug. 28 to speak for two items on the agenda pertaining to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant.

Per the meeting agenda, the U.S. Department of Justice has grant funding available through the JAG program. This program will aid the Gallup Police Department by assisting state, local and tribal efforts to prevent or reduce crime and violence.

For 2017, the Department of Justice awarded a grant in the amount of $38,686 to the City of Gallup and McKinley County.

Boyd said this amount would be split between the city and the county, with $24,000 for the city, and $14,686 for...

Officer Patrick Largo pulls man from tracks in the nick of time

Gallup Police Department Officer Patrick Largo received a Life Saver Award for his heroic actions in the line of duty, after saving a man from an oncoming train on Aug. 13. When he received the call, it was about a man walking in front of vehicles near Third Street and West Highway 66.

According to the incident report, on route to the scene, Largo spotted a white jeep heading east on Highway 66 and a man in a black shirt running away from the jeep. A man got out of the jeep and began to chase the man in black, shouting “Help me, he’s running toward the train tracks.”

Largo noticed an eastbound train approaching...