Warning: The video in this story may be graphic to some as it shows a fight.
SILVER CITY, N.M. (KRQE) – A man is currently at a detention center after authorities alleged he opened fire on a police officer at point blank during a traffic stop. Amazingly, the officer wasn’t hit, but now, the driver is in trouble again. This time, he’s accused of beating up another inmate over tamales.
Ruben De La O is in the Grant County Detention Center in Silver City after being accused in the police shooting. Now, he has new charges.
Investigators said, last month, he and another inmate, Jose Rocha, beat up another inmate. Witnesses told police different stories, but one version said it was because the inmate ate De La O’s tamale.
“He had eaten someone else’s hot plates, which were tamales that day, but we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t really determine the exact cause of the incident,” said Joseph Andazola, the detention center’s warden.
The victim was beaten so badly that he had to be flown to El Paso, Texas, for surgery. De La O talked about the attack in a jail phone call to his girlfriend.
“‘They told you that was for me and then you still went ahead and did this, dog,’ and he kept trying to justify instead of saying like, ‘Hey man, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.’ So, I just gave him a nice one, and it was all bad.”
The victim did not want to press charges, but the state is moving forward with charges.
“Due to the severity of the injury to the victim, and also to send a message that we are not going to put up with any violence in the detention center,” said Andazola. De La O now faces a new charge of aggravated battery.
De La O’s trial date for the police shooting is scheduled for August.
