A man was airlifted to The University of New Mexico Hospital on May 31 after he was shot and found near the Valdez Bridge.
The man’s name and age was redacted from an Española City Police report. Sgt. Adrian Martinez was flagged down at 3:34 a.m. May 31, by a person carrying a flashlight and walking about a quarter-mile from the bridge.
Martinez found the man lying on the ground and wrote in his incident report that it was clear he was in pain, as he was moaning and said he couldn’t breathe or feel his legs, the report said.
He asked the man what happened and he said he had been shot. When asked where he’d been shot, the man said in his back and leg.
“I did not observe any significant amount of blood on (man) other than a couple of areas near his right shoulder,” Martinez wrote. “I then proceeded to assist (man) to a seated position; at this time, I observed a hole in the back of his shirt. I lifted (man’s) shirt and observed a hole in his back.”
The man told Martinez that he was walking from town on the side of the road when he was shot. The sergeant asked if he had any enemies that would want to shoot him and he said no.
“I further asked how long he was lying where he was before we showed up and he advised five to 10 minutes,” Martinez wrote.
Medics arrived and took the man to the Española Hospital and Martinez looked in the area for evidence. The heavily redacted report does not state what evidence Martinez found, but the items that he did recover were in the area where the man was found.
After Martinez collected the evidence, he went to the hospital and was told by medical staff that the man had been shot three times: Once in the back, once in the right thigh and once in the right shoulder. They were trying to stabilize the man and he was later airlifted to UNM-H.
Martinez wrote that the case would be forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Division.