Shootout at end of chase kills one
Police say dead man was a suspect in earlier south-side violence

Natalie Storey | The New Mexican
Posted: Friday, February 29, 2008
- 3/1/08
     
   Print   |   Font Size:    

Related Items




advertisement
Law-enforcement officers shot a man to death on Rodeo Road on Friday who was believed to have critically wounded another man on Santa Fe's south side after a "neighbor dispute" earlier in the day, according to police.

Luis Lugo, 50, was killed after he shot at police near Rodeo Road and Calle Pava, according to Peter Olson, state police spokesman. The man who was shot on the south side — in the 1000 block of Calle Nueva Vista — was identified by police as 21-year-old Daniel Ramos, who lived across the street from Lugo. Ramos, who was shot in the chest, was in critical condition Friday night at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

Emergency dispatchers received a call about 2 p.m. from a frantic woman screaming that a man had been shot, according to Olson. Ramos was believed to have been shot in a house on Calle Nueva Vista, a street lined by empty lots for new homes off Zepol Road.

Several minutes after the first call to 911, a man called and gave police a description of a black Dodge truck and of Lugo, the driver, Olson said. Area law-enforcement authorities were alerted, and about 10 minutes later, a Santa Fe police officer spotted the truck on Rodeo Road, near the rodeo grounds. When the officer tried to pull Lugo over, he sped away. Police — joined by Santa Fe County sheriff's deputies who also had responded — chased him down Rodeo Road at speeds of up to 60 mph.

Lugo began to slow down near Calle Pava, according to police. Olson said police still were unsure Friday night of the details of how the shooting unfolded, but that Lugo shot at officers from his truck. One shot went through the windshield of a car a deputy had pulled up alongside the truck, but the deputy was unharmed, Olson said.

Police fired multiple rounds into Lugo's truck, Olson said. Investigators were unsure whether Lugo got out of the truck or was pulled out by law-enforcement officers after he was shot. Olson said every window in the truck had been shot through. Officials are awaiting the results of ballistics tests to determine who fired the bullet or bullets that killed Lugo.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano — whose agency responded to the initial call of a shooting on Calle Nueva Vista — said New Mexico State Police had taken over the investigation of the shootings. He said the first shooting was related to a "neighbor dispute." Lt. Rick Anglada of the state police said Friday night his agency did not know what started the dispute.

Lugo has a criminal history dating to 1980, according to online court records. In that year, he pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated burglary and aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon in two cases in Albuquerque. In 1987, he was charged with aggravated battery on a peace officer in Santa Fe. In 1991, he pleaded guilty to burglary and robbery in two cases in Santa Fe.

A man working on Rodeo Road when the chase occurred said he saw the black truck speed past his business with five or six police cars following. He said a trail of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks soon followed. The man said he didn't hear any shots but that the sirens continued for a long time.

Traffic on Rodeo Road east of St. Francis Drive was blocked for much of the afternoon. Police roped off the area from the RainbowVision residential complex to Calle Pava as a crime scene. Olson said he did not know how many officers fired at Lugo, but at least four police cars were part of the crime scene Friday afternoon.

Contact Natalie Storey at 986-3026 or nstorey@sfnewmexican.com.






You must register with a valid email address and use your real first-and-last name to comment on this forum. Once you've logged into the system, you'll be able to contribute comments. If you need help logging in or establishing your new user name and password, please write us.For information on our community guidelines and updating your username to meet standards, visit http://sfnm.co/sfnmforum.

All users are expected to abide by the forum rules and and be courteous to other users. Comments can be accepted up to eight days following publication. After that, comments can be read but no new submissions made. Send questions to webeditor@sfnewmexican.com

IMPORTANT: Comments must be posted under your own full, real name. Anonymous comments and those posted under a pseudonym can be removed. Please consult the forum rules. If you have questions, e-mail webeditor@sfnewmexican.com.
comments powered by Disqus




advertisement
advertisement
"));