Santa Fe police believe two young security guards employed by a local firm are responsible for a shooting early Tuesday morning that left a man with four gunshot wounds in a restaurant parking lot on Cerrillos Road.
The suspects, whom the shooting victim alleged were providing security at an Albertsons grocery store hours earlier, when he first had an encounter with them, face charges of attempted murder and other counts. Police accuse the guards of firing āassault-style riflesā at the victimās truck, striking the man as he fled from them.
Jair Rascon-Chavez, 21, and Luis Adrian Garcia, 22, both of Santa Fe, were arrested after an investigation into a series of incidents that unfolded late Monday night and early Tuesday morning at the Albertsons on Zafarano Drive and the McDonaldās on Cerrillos Road and Richards Avenue, charging documents say.
One of the suspects told investigators the pair were ātrying to intimidateā the victim, a man from Glorieta, and his girlfriend, who had been sleeping in their truck in the McDonaldās parking lot, police wrote in a statement of probable cause. The affidavit describes a scenario in which the guards saw the couple sleeping in the truck as they drove through the McDonaldās drive-thru after their shift, and approached it with their weapons to scare the couple.
The victim awoke and quickly drove away, according to the document, prompting the suspects to fire at least six rounds, striking the man four times.
The victim was hospitalized and in stable condition later Tuesday, according to police. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Santa Fe police Lt. Heinz DeLuca said Rascon-Chavez and Garcia were employed by 1st Defense Security, a Santa Fe-based company. Deputy Chief Ben Valdez confirmed the suspects worked for 1st Defense.
Representatives from the security firm did not return calls or emails Wednesday evening seeking comment. The company was launched in 2023, according to its website. A job posting by 1st Defense Security earlier this year states the company was seeking āarmedā security guards.
Abie Rampy, a spokesperson for The United Family, the parent company of Albertsons and other grocery chains, said in a statement Wednesday, āOur top priority is our guests and team membersā safety and security. The security guards, contracted through a third-party security company, were not on duty and not on the premises at the time of the incident.ā
Rascon-Chavez and Garcia face a string of charges, including attempted murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at or from a motor vehicle and negligent use of a deadly weapon, according to criminal complaints filed Tuesday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
State records show both Rascon-Chavez and Garcia have active security guard certification through the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, but neither is certified to wield a firearm on the job.
An online database shows āJair R Rasconā received Level 1 security guard certification in September 2022, and āLuis Adrian Garciaā received Level 2 certification in January. State law requires security guards to carry Level 3 certification to work as armed guards.
Neither Rascon-Chavez nor Garcia had faced a felony charge before the counts connected with this weekās shooting. They had only faced citations for traffic violations or littering.
Allegations of prior threat
The victim told investigators Tuesday he and his girlfriend were sleeping in his truck in the McDonaldās lot when he awoke to see the two men āwearing face coverings and ballistic-type vests, and armed with assault-style rifles.ā He recognized the masked assailants as security guards who had threatened him hours earlier at the Albertsons, police wrote.
A security guard later identified as Rascon-Chavez was accused of striking the man with a baton and threatening to shoot him Monday evening.
A Santa Fe police officer was dispatched to Albertsons at 9:23 p.m. Monday, according to the agencyās logs, known as āhot sheets.ā The Glorieta man reported a security guard there had āthreatened to spray him with [pepper spray], pushed him from behind, and then struck him with a baton,ā police wrote in the statement of probable cause for the shooting. It doesnāt appear any charges were filed in connection with those allegations.
The man told the officer the security guard āalso threatened him with a rifle.ā
He was asleep in his vehicle as he waited for his girlfriend, who was shopping in Albertsons, when he was awakened by a horn honking, he said, adding the horn was from āa red car with a security guard in the driverās seat,ā police wrote. The man said he walked into the store and asked a manager if he had called security on him, and the manager told him no. He then reparked his truck and āaccidentally bumped into a tree,ā he told the officer, before returning to the store to look for his girlfriend.
The man alleged another guard inside told him to leave the store āor he would mace him,ā police wrote, and the man āstated he was surprised and displeased with the manager for not taking action, so he requested a higher or different member of the management staff.ā He alleged the guard, however, hit him on the back of the head with a baton as he was walking out of the store.
The guard followed him outside, he told police, adding the guard then grabbed an āAR-styleā rifle from his vehicle and held it with the muzzle pointed toward the ground, police wrote.
The man told police after the incident āthe guard was intimidating, which made him think the guard might shoot him,ā the affidavit says.
Hours later and several blocks away, he would later tell police, that same guard fired shots at him.
Plot to āintimidateā
Police wrote Rascon-Chavez and Garcia drove by the man and his girlfriend in the McDonaldās lot around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. Garcia told officers it had been āhis ideaā for the two to āintimidateā the man, so they both put on ski masks and āarmored vestsā and walked up to the manās pickup wielding āAR rifles,ā police wrote.
Rascon-Chavez knocked on the manās car window and told him to āroll down the window so they could talk,ā Garcia told investigators, but the man instead reversed out of the parking spot and drove off onto Richards Avenue. The guards chased after the vehicle, according to the affidavit. Garcia said he fired five rounds at the truck as it was driving off, and that Rascon-Chavez fired at least once, police allege.
āGarcia stated the reason he fired his firearm at the vehicle was to intimidate [the man],ā police wrote in the affidavit.
Police confirmed the details of the shooting by viewing surveillance video provided by McDonaldās, according to the statement.
Officers wrote in the affidavit they drove to the Albertsons parking lot later Tuesday and saw Rascon-Chavez sitting in his vehicle. They conducted a traffic stop and arrested him, and a āblack AR-style rifle and a ski maskā could be seen sitting on the floorboard of Rascon-Chavezās back seat, the affidavit says.
Garcia was arrested Tuesday āwithout incidentā during a SWAT team operation at his house on Calle Caballero, police wrote. Both men were booked in the Santa Fe County jail Tuesday evening.
Albertsons was packed with customers Wednesday afternoon, ahead of Thanksgiving Day, but no security guards could be seen inside or outside the store.
