A man found dead on the Interstate 40 median this morning, near mile post 19, in Gallup, was hit sometime during the dark, early Friday morning hours.

Gallup Police Department Capt. Marinda Spencer said two calls came in about the body, with the first one shortly after 6 am.

The first caller had reportedly passed through the area by the time they called police, saying there was a dead body on the median. An officer searched the area, but didn’t find a body.

The man, determined to be in his 20s, was discovered by a tractor-trailer driver about an hour after the first call. The driver stayed on scene until police arrived.

Spencer said the man had no identification on his body, but detectives are working to ID the victim via forensic means. Currently, police don't have a lead on who may have hit the man.

Photo Credit: Knifewing Segura

Families of missing, murdered indigenous people gather at rally

Surely, pinning up flyers of missing and murdered individuals in local communities helps get the word out there, but for the family of victims, waiting on some type of resolution can feel like torture.

In the case of unsolved murders, for victims’ families, emotions scar and frustration runs high. Such as the case of Leland Antonio Tso, 37, of Wheatfields, Ariz., who was murdered July 5, 2016.

Tso’s niece, Tiara Shorty, also from Wheatfields, and her family participated in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Men and Women awareness drive at Red Rock Park in Gallup Feb. 3.

Tso’s family mingled with other families facing similar pain – no closure and an ongoing mystery surrounding the murder or disappearance of a loved one.

“It was overwhelming because when you go through this, you think, this is affecting me and my family, but you don’t realize that there are other families out there that are experiencing the exact same thing you are,” Shorty said.

Participants brought their signs, flyers, posters and banners to raise awareness and focus on the missing and murdered indigenous men and women in the United States.

Meskee Yatsayte, founder of Navajo Nation Missing Persons Updates, said the organization was launched  in May 2013, but recently became fully active in July 2017. The awareness drive seemed like a natural step to take in moving the organization forward.

“I wanted to bring it here [awareness drive] to Gallup because we really don’t see too much of that,” she said. “We are just now waking up the public because a lot of people don’t realize how many people are missing.”

NUMBERS RISING

For the Navajo Nation, there are 28 missing persons: 17 males, 11 females. There are three unidentified; and for the Missing Persons of the 21 Pueblos across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, there are five currently missing. Yatsayte believes there are two more.

Not to mention Navajo Nation Police Officers that were murdered in the line of duty.

There’s over 100,000 missing on an average, yearly, and over 40,000 unidentified, Yatsayte said.

And only 6,000 out of the 100,000 are reported and submitted to the National Crime Information Center. Why? Some police officers don’t enter missing person reports into the NCIC, Yatsayte claims.

“There’s so many people out there that if it’s not in the database, nobody else is going to know they’re missing,” she said. “It’s really important for future missing reports that they get entered into the data base.”

If an individual has been missing for more than three weeks, Yatsayte said they get entered into the data base under the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

“We use that [NamUs] a lot for our research,” Yatsayte said.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

While the grief-stricken, Tso’s family remains dedicated in their quest to find justice. There’s a killer still out there afterall.

“Now that I have been touched by this tragedy, my family and I are doing everything we can to get awareness out there,” Shorty said. “It’s big once you get affected by it. It changes you.”

Being around other people at the awareness drive, going through similar pain, brought comfort, Shorty explained. It was also uplifting to feel support from the community.

“We got a lot of responses driving through town,” Shorty said about participating in the awareness drive. “People were slowing down. People were honking.”

The organization has certainly been doing its part as Yatsayte and other advocates travel to different locations to raise awareness by taking flyers to chapter houses, churches, detox centers and shelters.

In addition, Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathan Nez, stands behind the organization, and because of him, awareness of the crisis has grown, Yatsayte noted.

The organization also collaborates with Strengthening Families, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Crotty, Sexual Assault Prevention Subcommittee and Human Trafficking.

MAINTAINING AWARENESS

“When you go to Walmart, to the post office, all you see are missing and murdered flyers,” Yatsayte said. “That’s not how is should be. People know stuff and they should share it.”

Those flyers pinned up in local gas stations, post offices, restaurants, are kept in a booklet that Yatsayte created.

“Something needs to be done about this [missing/murdered] because the numbers are rising. And nobody talks about this,” Yatsayte said. “I don’t want their faces or names to be forgotten. They need justice. That’s our main focus.”

For Shorty’s family, finding Tso’s murderer has become a part of their everyday life.

“My family and I have been trying to get justice and closure for my uncle,” Shorty said. “There are people out there that have information.”

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Yatsayte encourages people to get involved with the organization, which responsibilities would include helping to maintain the Facebook page by posting missing individuals, and creating and distributing flyers.

“You got to want to make a change,” Yatsayte said.

She encourages people to like the organization’s Facebook page, and share the postings of missing and murdered people.

But, while social media is a fast and active way to notify the community, not everyone has access to the Internet. Yatsayte said she posts flyers “anywhere there’s a waiting room” and works to forge connections with local law enforcement.

Yatsayte and other advocates go out every other Saturday in the surrounding communities, and stand beside the road with their missing person flyers and signs.

“We hope to spread more awareness that way,” she said

In addition, according to NNMPU Facebook page, they have an “Unofficial NNMPU Text Alert System.” It’s a sign-up system that allows the organization  to send out text alerts to cellphones when someone goes missing or believed to be endangered.

So far, more than 16,000 people have signed-up for the service.

ISSUES

Some people that go missing may be at a higher risk due to domestic violence, sexual assault, drug and alcohol addiction, and human and sex trafficking. Others may be suicidal or suffer from mental illness.

“People ask ‘how is that possible?’” Yatsayte said. “It is possible. I have at least five or six of them that may be domestic grounds related and a lot of them are drug and alcohol abuse related.”

She hopes to continue to open the eyes of the community and let everyone know that people are still missing. And those who have been murdered, the family deserves justice.

“I hope that anyone that knows any information will come forward,” she said. “Or for those individuals who had part in it … to turn themselves in.”

For more information, contact Meskee Yatsayte. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text27569 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Visit: https://www.facebook.com/Navajo­NationMissing­PersonsUpdates/

By Boderra Joe

Sun Correspondent

Gallup memorializes Bernhard Schulze

Sometimes a kind word or gesture goes a long way toward being remembered.

A Gallup man wise in the ways of the street passed recently and was remembered by those whose lives he touched through the years. Dozens gathered in his honor.

The memorial service for Bernhard Schulze was held at the Gallup downtown Courthouse Plaza Jan. 23. Schulze was born on Aug. 4, 1957 and passed on Jan. 12, 2018. He has lived in Gallup since the 1970s.

Rev. Lorelei Kay began the service with a story about the first time she met Schulze. She was at a community event when he approached and asked her what her name was.

“I recognized his German accent and thought he might recognize the story of my name,” Kay said.

She noted that her name was from the Lorelei, which according to German legend were sirens who sat upon rocks in the Rhine River. Sailors would sail up and down the river and occasionally crash on the rocks.

The sailors told stories of enchanting beauties sitting upon the rocks, combing their long, golden hair and singing. Bewitched, the sailors would crash their ships on the rocks.

“When I said my name to him, Lorelei, Bernhard looked at me and kind of smiled and said, ‘Oh, you cut your hair,’ ” Kay said.

The introduction captured Schulze’s innate cerebral personality.

“So many people cared about him. So many people have stories to tell about Bernhard’s wit, his kindness, his quick temper and his ability to survive, almost in spite of himself,” she said.

Kay recited scripture in honor of Schulze’s Catholic faith and recounted the efforts to contact his family in Germany to apprise them of his passing.

Born and raised in Otzberg, Germany, Schulze was the youngest of four children. His three elder siblings were all girls and Brigitta, the eldest, had the most responsibility toward raising her brother.

“She took him everywhere with her, which, as you can imagine [was] probably kind of irritating,” Kay said. “Nevertheless, she did her best to show him a good path and she is clear that he grew up in a good home.”

As a young man, he was called to military service by the German government and instead left his homeland for America with some friends. The irony, she said, was that Schulze served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Kay said he often told the story of how he came to Gallup.

“After serving in the military, he was working for the famous musician Barry White,” she said. “They had a cross-country tour and one of their stops was in Gallup.

“Bernhard enjoyed the local scene a little too much and he missed the band’s departure in the morning. He’d been in Gallup ever since,” she added.

A COMMUNITY’S EMBRACE

About 30 years ago, Brigitta flew to Los Angeles and took the bus to Gallup and spent a week visiting with her brother. It would be the last time they saw each other.

“She was thankful to know that he would have this service in his memory and that people would show up to honor his life. Thank you for being here,” Kay said.

David Conejo, CEO for Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services, spoke next and said the Bernhard he knew would not want people to be sad at his service.

“He’d work a smile into your face, every day,” Conejo said.

Schulze called Conejo one day and said he was ready to be admitted to behavioral health services at the hospital.

Conejo picked him up and began driving toward the hospital. Along the way, Schulze asked for a favor and asked Conejo to stop at Walgreens for some reading glasses.

Soon after, he asked for a pack of cigarettes and then a meal before he was admitted to the hospital.

“I leave and I’m about a half hour down the road before the phone rings. They said, your friend, your buddy, he’s walking toward your way right now,” Conejo said.

The experience illustrated Schulze’s free will lifestyle, he said, noting that his personality captured the essence of what it means to be on the street.

“He was always looking past his own problems and bringing people flowers or a kind word,” he said. “In that sense, this memorial service isn’t just for him, but also the others who died because he was always there for them.”

Sanjay Choudhrie, executive director of Community Area Resource Enterprise, said, “Bernhard’s death is so much about who we are as a community, it’s about who we are as a people and who we want to be. He didn’t need to die, I don’t think.”

Choudhrie said in Gallup, citizens are scared of homeless people and blame them for problems here. We all have some level of imbalance that makes us unique, he said.

“Bernhard got worse over the years. He’s been in and out of our shelters. He had a job at Chuska Apartments. This is the second death we had this year with one of our clients,” he said.

“We have to figure out the future so that people have an opportunity to get a home and so that people can have full lives. There is a way to do it, we just have to figure that out together,” Coudhrie added.

When the memorial concluded, people gathered at the Lexington Hotel for coffee and cookies and their opportunity to share their stories about Schulze. His kind words and gentle heart touched many who gathered to remember his life in the high desert town of Gallup, N.M.

By Rick Abasta
Sun Correspondent

Victim in grave condition

Staff Reports

UPDATE: McKinley County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Robert Turney said this evening that Ryan Westman is in the custody of San Juan County Sheriff's. Earlier this evening, Westman was located, pursed, at some point he opened fire on officers. Westman sustained minor injuries to his arm when officers returned fire. He was being treated at a Farmington hospital, and was or will be booked into San Juan County Adult Detention Center.

A local Gallup man, Ryan “Bam” Westman, is wanted for allegedly beating a man on the head with a blunt object, according to McKinley County Sheriff’s Department investigators.

The reported assault to 57-year-old Mitchell Chavez occurred at #15 Zeta St. around 8:30 pm, Jan. 22.

Chavez sustained severe head injuries and was airlifted to Flagstaff where’s he’s listed in critical condition.

The affidavit for arrest warrant states “the victim would die from his head injuries as soon as he was extubated.”

Witnesses told investigators that Chavez was sitting on a couch at the residence when Westman, 25, struck him on the head multiple times. He then asked the witnesses for help in dragging the victim’s body out of the home, but they reportedly refused to help Westman with the deed.

Westman said in front of the witnesses that he “knocked that n--ger out and was leaving to Albuquerque to pick up his girlfriend,” the warrant states.

Witnesses also told investigators that they weren't sure what sparked the fight, but Chavez and Westman arrived at the residence together and were attempting to sell a handgun to a neighboring home on Zeta Street.

Westman faces charges of aggravated battery, assault with intent to commit a violent felony (with intent to commit murder), aggravated assault (use of a deadly weapon), and tampering with evidence.  If Chavez passes away from his injuries, MCSO Sgt. Robert Turney said charges against Westman will be upgraded to murder.

Turney said to immediately call 911 if you spot Westman. Do not approach, he’s considered armed and dangerous.