SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – An 18-year-old is accused of bringing a gun to a high school football game and threatening someone with it. He is getting off with a warning, as the district attorney dismissed his case.
The September 2022 Santa Fe High School football game against Lovington went from bad to worse as trouble unfolded in the parking lot. A shaken-up Santa Fe High student told a security guard that a group of people were threatening him, and one of them had a gun.
The victim told police, “As they were like walking up to me, they just started like waving stuff in the air, so I was just like, and I just started running.”
The victim explained to police officers that, in the past, he got caught up in a drive-by shooting with the wrong group of people.
He said, “I was the driver, but someone hopped into my car, and they just got that on camera, so I got in trouble. I talked to the cops. I got that over with, and then ever since that happened they were like, ‘oh, you’re a snitch. Na, na, na,’ and I was like, ‘whatever.’”
Eventually, police find 18-year-old Lorenzo Garcia with his group of friends. The police officer finds a gun and a bullet in the chamber on Garcia. He goes on to tell the officers that he’s in the military.
“I’m in the military. I actually just joined. I got my ID in my back pocket. I’m going to basic. I’m supposed to be going actually in two weeks,” he said.
Garcia was detained and put in the back of a police car while other officers tried to keep things calm in the parking lot. In the end, Garcia lucked out. His charge for unlawfully carrying a deadly weapon on school grounds was dropped by the Santa Fe District Attorney (DA).
According to the DA’s office, since Garcia showed proof that he was accepted and entered into the Air Force Reserves, the DA acknowledged his effort to improve his life. In order to encourage rehabilitation, he agreed to dismiss his case without prejudice. If Garcia is discharged from the Air Force, his felony charge can be reinstated.
