A man police are calling a would-be burglar lost most of his calf muscles Monday after an Avenida Cañada homeowner shot him at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun.
“(The homeowner) said he didn’t have the heart to kill him,” Española Police Lt. Christian Lopez said. “He shot him in the legs.”
Joe Quintana, 28, was still in surgery at Española Hospital late Monday evening after he was shot by Joseph McNeil just before 9 a.m., Lopez said. A slug from McNeil’s shotgun tore through Quintana’s right calf muscle, which destroyed it, and went through his left calf, partially removing that muscle, according to Lopez, who said Quintana should be able to walk again with surgery and rehabilitation.
“More than likely it’s going to be a while,” Lopez said.
Emergency personnel were called to McNeil’s home at the intersection of El Llano Road at about 9 a.m. Monday. The yard was cordoned off with caution tape while officers and detectives walked through the living room and photographed the scene of the shooting. Quintana was lying on a stretcher in the doorway to the home, and was moving his head and talking to medical workers before they took him away in an ambulance.
McNeil declined to comment at his home later that afternoon.
Lopez offered the following account of what went on inside the home:
McNeil was in the house, which he shares with his wife, by himself Monday morning when he heard someone trying to remove an air conditioner in a window. When Quintana couldn’t remove the air conditioner, he broke through a bedroom window to enter the house. McNeil grabbed his shotgun and confronted Quintana at the door to the bedroom.
McNeil ordered Quintana to the ground, but he did not listen. The two men fought over the shotgun, and Quintana lost. Quintana, who was unarmed, ran past McNeil for the front door and tried to open it. However, the screen door to the house was dead-bolted and could only be opened with a key from the inside.
Trapped at the front door, Quintana ignored another command from McNeil to get on the ground, so McNeil shot him. The slug was lodged in the wall after it passed through both of Quintana’s legs.
Lopez said the shooting met a standard for self-defense. He said the only other way out of the house after the front door was for Quintana to run past McNeil for the back door.
“Hell, he already fought him one time for the gun,” Lopez said. “(McNeil) thought his life was in jeopardy.”
Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Hill arrived at the scene shortly after the ambulance left with Quintana. Lopez said police investigators would give her the case against Quintana. He said Quintana could potentially be charged with felony burglary and assault, as well as with aggravated assault because the two men were fighting over a firearm.
Quintana faced charges of felony burglary and larceny last October in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court, according to an online court records database. Hill dismissed those charges Jan. 10 with a motion stating the case may be presented to a grand jury. So far, Quintana has not been indicted on those charges, according to court records.