A May 4 brush fire near the intersection of Patton and Dairy drives was quickly extinguished by crews from the Gallup Fire Department, according to reports.

Gallup Deputy Fire Chief Jesus Morales said a call regarding what looked like a tree on fire came into dispatch at around 6:05 pm. When firefighters arrived, there were residents of the neighborhood attempting to put the fire out.

“We don’t encourage that,” Morales said of resident participation. “This was a brush fire. We were able to contain it.”

Morales said the fire was centralized behind a church near the intersection. He did not identify the church in the fire report. He said the fire was put out by using hand...

McKinley County to steadily monitor TCC

The McKinley County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 May 9 to renew the lease of the Thoreau Community Center. The Community Center, whose executive director is Priscilla Manuelito, appeared before the panel last month in a last-ditch effort to get funds and argue for keeping the rental agreement in place.

The current agreement was put into place four years ago and expired in 2015. Manuelito told commissioners at an April 25 county meeting that the expiration matter just slipped everybody’s mind.

“This is a very good sign,” Manuelito said after the meeting. “Obviously, the Community Center is something that is very much needed in...

Official: DEADLINE not met

The case against a Gallup man charged with criminal sexual penetration in the second degree was dismissed May 5 due to a city police detective not submitting a rape test to the state by a prescribed deadline, court documents show.

Major Singh, 47, of Bakersville, Calif., and working in Gallup as a cook at the Bombay Restaurant and Buffet, 3404 W. Historic Highway 66, was released from the McKinley County Adult Detention Center on May 5 after the deadline mishap.

The deadline matter was disputed by the Gallup detective who said in court papers that the information was sent.

Eleventh District Judicial Court judge Robert Aragon gave the McKinley County...

DOMESTIC ABUSE

5/8, Gallup

A resident living in the area of State Highway 118 and Williams Acres witnessed a man beating on a woman. The caller was on the phone, giving Metro Dispatch updates of what was occurring before their eyes.

According to MCSO Deputy Johnson Lee’s report, the calling party said that the man, identified as Adrian Wilson of Ganado, Ariz., was threatening to kill his significant other. When Lee arrived on scene, he found the couple standing west of where their vehicles were parked.

Lee asked Wilson, 23, to get on the ground, but he refused to comply. At that point the deputy walked up to him and placed handcuffs on him and detained him in his patrol unit so...