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Friday, Mar 29th

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Man picked up driving stolen car, gets a DWI

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A man who thought he spotted his brother’s stolen car contacted the McKinley County Sheriff’s Department. It was March 4. Derrick Natonabah saw a GMC Sierra that he believed was stolen from the Navajo Police Department in Window Rock, Arizona March 1.

The vehicle was seen near Sage Brush Liquor on Highway 264 bearing...

A new public safety building is coming … eventually

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During the city council meeting held on March 9, Clyde Strain, Gallup’s Planning and Development Director, presented a grant that would pay for a new public safety building to house the Gallup Police Department and the Gallup Municipal Court.

The grant by the State of New Mexico’s Department of Finance and Administration, totals $1.5 million.

The design for the new building is complete, and in an interview after the meeting, Strain said the city is now looking at funding for the project. He explained that it is a $16 million project, but that the city has been putting money aside for it for years, and that it is at about the halfway mark now.

The grant is for the design...

Weekly Police Activity Reports

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SEARCHING FOR SHOOTER

Lupton, March 5

McKinley County Deputy Gavin Panteah was dispatched to the three-mile marker of I-40 along with Deputies Nocona Clark and Frank Villa in reference to a potential shooting. But on the way there, the dispatch location switched to the Yellowhorse Trading Post in Lupton, Ariz.

The deputies arrived and met with the victim, Elias Espinoza, who had sustained a gunshot wound  on the right side of his face. Panteah spoke with the caller at the scene, Antonio Agguire, who told him that he and Espinoza stopped at a nearby gas station. Espinoza left the vehicle to go inside, and Agguire said he heard a gunshot.

While Agguire helped Espinoza to a nearby bench...

WEEKLY DWI REPORT

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Wayne Lucero

March 7, 11:10 am

Aggravated DWI

Metro Dispatch received multiple calls about a grey Toyota Tundra parked in front of the Prewitt post office with its motor running and the driver asleep at the wheel. McKinley County Deputy Clayton Etsitty was dispatched to the area of 1692 State Hwy. 122 in Prewitt, where he found the suspect vehicle. As he drove up, Etsitty saw the driver open the door and appear to vomit.

Etsitty turned on his unit’s emergency lights and approached the suspect vehicle from the passenger side. He made contact with the driver, Wayne Lucero, 60, of Grants, who said he was leaving McKinley Paper Mill and traveling back home.

As he spoke, Etsitty...

Deputies respond to shooting in Gamerco

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Deputy Jerald Watchman and Deputy Dewayne Holder were called to 206 Summit Avenue in Gamerco on Feb. 26, around 3:30 am. They were responding to a call about a gunshot victim.

A man named Thompson Becenti met the deputies in the yard outside the trailer home. He told the officers that the victim was in the trailer.  Holder went inside, where he met the victim Brandon Kiyite, sitting in a chair just inside the door.

When Holder asked him what happened, Kiyite said a man had taken his car and shot him. He said he didn’t know the man, but that he told Kiyite that he worked for the cartel.

Holder asked about the shooter’s race, and Kiyite said he thought he was Native. He described...

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