A man is shot as tempers flare in New Mexico over the statue of a Spanish conquistador

ESPANOLA, N.M. —  Chaos erupted Thursday after a gunshot was fired during a protest in northern New Mexico where officials had planned, then postponed installing a statue of a Spanish conquistador, anticipating that tempers would flare.

One man was shot and transported to a hospital as Rio Arriba County sheriff’s officials took a suspect into custody. Authorities said they were not seeking any other suspects.

The conquistador Juan de Oñate has been a controversial figure in New Mexico’s history for generations. Activists have targeted the statue and other likenesses of the Spaniard for his oppressive and sometimes brutal treatment of Native Americans during his country’s conquest of what is now the southwestern United States. Some Latinos have pointed to the statue as a symbol of their heritage.

Although the county had postponed the installation of the statue the previous day because of public safety concerns, people still turned out.

Protesters arrived Tuesday and pitched tents. They placed offerings on and around the empty pedestal to Oñate: pottery, cornstalks, votive candles, a basket of vegetables. Banners read, “Not today Oñate,” and “Celebrate resistance not conquistadores.”

Suspect Ryan Martinez, 23, used profanity in arguments with protesters and was told by law enforcement officers to leave. Video captured by onlookers showed the man jumping a short wall and heading toward the crowd as others grabbed him.

One person yelled, “Hey, hey, hey. Let him go!” as he broke free and jumped back over the wall. That’s when he pulled a gun from his waistband and fired a single shot before running off. Screaming ensued.

One person could be heard saying, “Help me! Help me!” and “I can’t breathe.”

The shooting occurred just outside the doors of county offices, which include sheriff’s offices. More than 20 law enforcement vehicles responded, crowding a roadway in Española that overlooks the Upper Rio Grande Valley.

The wounded man, whose name was not immediately released by authorities, was shot in the upper torso and was being treated at a hospital, authorities said.

Authorities said a motive for the shooting was unclear.

“Once again, the saddest part about this is we have another incident of gun violence,” Sheriff Billy Merrifield said at a brief news conference.

Merrifield said he expressed concerns about safety issues to county commissioners about reinstalling the statue in Española outside the county building. He said he was grateful to commissioners who decided against putting up the statue.

He declined to take any questions, saying New Mexico State Police were handling the crime scene and the investigation.

State police didn’t immediately respond to emails or phone calls Thursday night seeking information about charges or the the condition of the victim.

Jennifer Marley of San Ildefonso Pueblo, an organizer for the Native American rights group the Red Nation, said the shooting took place within view of the Sheriff’s Department building but without any officers on site to intervene.

“It was awful. This was a peaceful call to action. We were there to celebrate the fact that the statue was not going up,” she said.

She described Oñate’s legacy as one of genocidal violence. “It’s really ironic, I was basically saying that this violence is ongoing ... even when we are being peaceful and prayerful. The shooting began while I was speaking.”

The shooting happened on the day the New Mexico Department of Health released a report on gunshot victims treated at the state’s hospitals. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham commissioned the report this month, alongside issuing a public health order that temporarily suspended gun rights in the Albuquerque area over recent gun violence.

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A federal judge blocked aspects of it while a flurry of lawsuits alleging violations of constitutional rights played out.

According to the report, there was a 16% increase in patients admitted to intensive care units for firearm injuries between 2019 and 2022. Gunshot victims transferred from emergency departments to operating rooms increased by 61% over the same time frame.

Tony Ortega, a 78-year-old retired technician who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said he was glad to hear the county planned to put the Oñate statue on public display as a symbol of local Latino pride. But he said he knew it would cause trouble.

“I knew this was going to be a problem. Native Americans don’t want it,” Ortega said. “They think Oñate was a bad person more or less.”

Oñate, who arrived in present-day New Mexico in 1598, is celebrated as a cultural father figure in communities along the Upper Rio Grande that trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers. But he is also reviled for his brutality.

To Native Americans, Oñate is known for having ordered the right feet cut off of 24 captive tribal warriors after his soldiers stormed the Acoma Pueblo’s mesa-top “sky city.” That attack was precipitated by the killing of Oñate’s nephew.

In 1998, someone sawed the right foot off the statue of Oñate near Española, where it had been on display until it was taken down in 2020 amid a national movement for racial justice that sought to topple countless monuments.

A likeness of Oñate among a caravan of Spanish colonists set in bronze outside an Albuquerque city museum also drew protests in 2020 that resulted in it being taken down.

Associated Press writers Terry Tang and Walter Berry in Phoenix and Christopher L. Keller and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this report.