VIDEO: N.M. Deputy Shoots Fellow Officer During Argument
A Santa Fe County deputy shot and killed another Santa Fe County deputy at a hotel in Las Cruces, N.M., according to Las Cruces Police spokesperson Danny Trujillo, reports the Albuquerque Journal.
Deputy Jeremy Martin, 29, was pronounced dead at a Las Cruces hospital, while the shooter — identified by his attorney as 27-year-old Tai Chan — was being questioned by police Tuesday morning.
Police say the two deputies were taking a prisoner to Arizona, and were returning through Las Cruces where they rented a room at Hotel Encanto around 4 p.m. Monday. That night they went to Dublin’s Street Pub, a local bar, where police say the two started arguing. "It's believed they consumed alcohol," reads a release from the Las Cruces Police Department. The argument escalated when they returned to their seventh floor hotel room, and that’s when police say the shooter fired several rounds from a semi-automatic gun at Martin, who was trying to escape by running to the elevator.
Officers found Martin bleeding heavily just outside the elevator in the lobby around 12:30 a.m., with gunshots to his back and arms. He was rushed to the Mountain View Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Martin is survived by his wife and three children.
Police began searching the hotel for the shooter, who was found in a stairwell near the roof of the hotel.
