A man was shot and killed in a downtown parking lot early Monday, Santa Fe police announced, but the agency provided few details about the incident.
A news release police issued Monday afternoon noted only the incident was under investigation, stating, “There are no threats to the community.”
Santa Fe police Capt. Jimmie Montoya said no one had been arrested in connection with the shooting as of Monday afternoon, but he declined to answer questions about the investigation.
Officers arrived around 3:30 a.m. Monday at the site of the shooting — a city parking lot at Water Street and Don Gaspar Avenue — and found a man with at least one gunshot wound; he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police did not disclose the name or age of the man who was killed.
The parking lot was taped off as a crime scene early Monday morning, and a biohazard crew could be seen cleaning what appeared to be a large puddle of blood in the center of the lot.
Later Monday morning, the crime scene was cleaned up and the parking lot reopened.
The shooting marks at least the third homicide in the state’s capital city this year, and the second to occur in the downtown area.
Suspects have been charged in both of the previous deaths. A man was accused in March of shooting and killing his brother, Aaron Mitchell, at a home on Barela Lane. In April, a man and a young woman were accused in the shooting death of 49-year-old Alvin Crespin, a homeless man, at the downtown De Vargas Park.
Court records indicate Crespin’s killing might have been tied to a 2021 homicide. Crespin initially was charged with murder in the death of a man whose body was found in a bathtub at a Cerrillos Road motel. The victim’s nephew is accused of shooting and killing Crespin, who had pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the case.
A woman also was fatally stabbed in April in her home in Agua Fría village, just outside city limits. New Mexico State Police have accused Minerva Maria Marquez Dominguez’s husband of killing her while the couple’s 9-month-old grandson played near her feet.
Online databases of court records and Santa Fe County jail logs did not appear to show any shooting suspects had been charged or booked as of Monday evening.
Officers encouraged anyone with more information about the shooting to call Santa Fe police Detective Enrique Moreno at 505-955-5232.