Prosecutors are seeking to have an Española man held without bail pending trial after he allegedly shot at cars in the Santa Cruz Country Store parking lot on Dec. 27.
Officer Dustin Chavez arrested Benjamin Angelo Maestas-Herrera, 43, on one count each of felon in possession of a firearm, a third degree felony; shooting at a dwelling, a fourth degree felony; disorderly conduct, a petty misdemeanor; negligent use of a deadly weapon, a petty misdemeanor; and five counts of resisting an officer, a misdemeanor.
In a criminal complaint, Chavez wrote that officers were sent to the store on State Road 76 for multiple shots fired calls, with at least one person telling dispatchers that a man was talking to himself and shooting a gun at vehicles at the store.
When Chavez and five officers arrived, at the same time, they all drew their guns as they approached Maestas-Herrera, who was walking toward the gas pumps with his hands near his side. When officers got out of their cars, he started walking toward them and officers told him to get on his knees, but instead, he started walking backward toward his car, a black Cadillac SUV, he wrote.
As he backed away, officers started to approach him, and Sgt. Anthony Martinez shot him with a stun gun in the back, Chavez wrote.
“Once the Taser was deployed and connected with Mr. Herrera there was no reaction or response seen from him and he continued to approach the vehicle,” Chavez wrote. “Mr. Herrera still continued to approach his vehicle as Sgt. (Cody) Martinez and myself rushed and attempted to apprehend Mr. Herrera while he was reaching into his waist area.”
Once he was on the ground, he fought with officers for a “lengthy period of time,” Chavez wrote.
“Once Mr. Herrera was detained and he was being picked up off the ground, a silver pistol fell out of his waistband,” Chavez wrote.
One officer checked the gun and found one bullet in the chamber and another left in the magazine. It was later found to be a legal pistol. In the area, they found eight shell casings, but Chavez did not write if they found any bullet holes in the cars or the building. Maestas-Herrera is charged with shooting at a building.
In a motion to have Maestas-Herrera held without bail, prosecutor Kent Wahlquist wrote that Maestas-Herrera poses a risk of gun violence and physical harm to “random members of the community” and responding officers, that he has a history of violating court conditions and committing crimes and that among his prior criminal cases is a charge out of Kansas, of aggravated fleeing an officer.
He was charged in 2023 with aggravated fleeing an officer, drunk driving and five counts of aggravated assault on an officer, a case that was dismissed, then refiled, then dismissed, refiled again before being dismissed for a third time.
He was extradited to Kansas in 2022 on the aggravated fleeing charge, although court records don’t indicate what happened to that underlying case.
A combined preliminary and detention hearing is set for Jan. 12 in Santa Fe District Court.