Chee Dodge Elementary went under lockdown after a man allegedly showed up to the school with multiple guns and threatened to shoot his ex-wife, who is an employee there.
Around 2:15 pm on June 11, McKinley County Deputy Jarad Albert was dispatched to the elementary school at 64 U.S. Hwy. 491 when a woman called Metro Dispatch and said that a man, who was identified as Donovoan Nuckols, was on school property with a gun.
When Albert arrived at the school he met with two women who were standing in the parking lot. One of the women said that Nuckols, 40, was her ex-husband. She explained that he’d come to the school wanting to talk to her.
The former couple had been married for about 20 years. The woman said there was no former incidences of domestic abuse, but she admitted that Nuckols had been acting strangely the last couple of weeks.
They reportedly met in the school’s front office and began arguing. The woman said that Nuckols believed she had cheated on him. The victim said Nuckols had accused her of cheating on him multiple times in the past couple of weeks. The former couple had been living in separate residences for a few days.
The woman said that earlier that morning Nuckols had texted her multiple times, starting at 5 am and ending at 11 am. One of the last texts he allegedly sent to her said “Later goodbye b****, I hate you.”
During their argument in the front office Nuckhols allegedly told his ex-wife “I just wanted to come see your face, tell you that you make me sick.” He continued by saying “I f*****g hate you, go look at your car.”
Nuckols then allegedly walked out of the school building and headed toward his own vehicle which was parked in the school’s bus lane.
The woman said she followed Nickols outside. When she got outside Nuckols was standing next to his SUV with the front passenger side door wide open. He then reportedly took what the victim believed to be a black gun out of the SUV.
When she saw the gun the victim reportedly asked Nuckols “What are you doing? You’re at school!”
Another woman had come outside with the victim, and she told Albert that the gun Nuckols had looked like an AK-47. Nuckols’ ex-wife said the gun was an AR-15 style gun.
Both women said they weren’t in fear for their lives, and that they didn’t think Nuckols would shoot them.
After Nuckols pulled out the gun his ex-wife walked to her own vehicle, which was parked on the other side of the parking lot. At that point Nuckols got back into his SUV and drove through the parking lot, heading toward her and her vehicle. The woman said Nuckols almost hit her with his SUV.
While the victim was walking to her car the other Chee Dodge Elementary employee who’d come outside with her ran into the building and told other employees of the school what was going on. The school went on lockdown.
In his report, Albert said that the lockdown led to problems for parents who were trying to pick their children up from school.
Back outside, the woman was allegedly standing near her vehicle when Nuckols began yelling at her from the driver’s seat of his SUV. He told her, “Call the f*****g cops, I don’t care. I’m going to f*****g kill myself.”
While Nuckols was allegedly yelling at the woman he pulled out a silver revolver and placed it against the side of his own head.
The victim told Nuckols she was going to call the police and then Nuckhols put his SUV in gear and quickly left the school parking lot. He then sped off, heading southbound on U.S. Highway 491.
In his report Albert stated that Nuckols hit the victim’s car with his SUV at some point before he met her in the school’s office. There was visible damage to the driver’s side rear corner panel. The victim estimated that it would cost about $7,000 to fix the damage.
Nuckols was reportedly driving a silver Lincoln Navigator with no license plates. Albert gave Metro Dispatch a description of the SUV, and other deputies began looking for the vehicle.
Less than 10 minutes later, Deputy Terrence Willie found the vehicle near South State Highway 602 and West Aztec Avenue. Nuckols would reportedly not slow down for the deputy, and Willie had to turn on his emergency lights and sirens and began to chase Nuckhol’s vehicle. The car chase lasted about seven minutes and ended at the intersection of First Street and Wilson Avenue, which is on the opposite side of Gallup from Chee Dodge Elementary.
During the car chase Nuckols reportedly drove on the wrong side of the road and almost crashed into another vehicle. Nuckols allegedly reached about 60 miles per hour in the downtown Gallup area, where people were walking around.
During an interview the victim told Albert that she believed Nuckols could be using drugs, such as marijuana and/or meth.
In an interview with the Sun, McKinley County Sheriff James Maiorano III said that after deputies reviewed the school’s surveillance footage and they searched Nuckols’ SUV, it was determined that the gun he pointed at the victim and the other school employee was a paintball gun. But he did have two real guns in his SUV, and he used one of them when he told the victim he was going to kill himself.
Maiorano praised his deputies for their quick response to the situation.
“I thought our deputies did an outstanding job of coordinating and communicating with each other to get that [car] pursuit ended as quickly and as safely as possible,” he said. “The suspect was taken into custody without the use of force or any other type of tactic, so we consider that without incident.”
He also praised Chee Dodge Elementary staff for how they handled the incident.
“I thought the school staff did an amazing job of recognizing the threat and using their iloveyouguys Foundation protocol to call for a lockdown and make sure that the rest of the staff and students were safe and secure inside the school while they waited for law enforcement to arrive and deal with the threat that was outside the school,” Maiorano said.
The school’s lockdown only lasted for about 10 minutes. It was lifted once law enforcement arrived at the scene. Maiorano said school pick-up wasn’t really affected, since the lockdown occurred before students were scheduled to be let out.
Nuckols was charged with unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon on school premises, aggravated assault against a household member, aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer, criminal damage to property of a household member, and interference with members of staff or the general public (refusal to leave). His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 26.
New Mexico law states that bringing a firearm onto school property is only a misdemeanor, not a felony. Mariano voiced his frustration with the law.
“I think New Mexico legislature is lacking when it comes to this particular law. Making a bomb threat on that type of establishment is a felony, but making a threat to shoot at a school or other public building is only a misdemeanor,” he said.
Staff Reports
