A Ribera teenager is in jail as state police investigate the shooting of a 17-year-old at a New Year’s party.
New Mexico state police say 18-year-old Joaquin Sanchez shot and killed Joshua Vigil, from Ribera, after an altercation at a party in Sanchez’s home.
At around 10:20 p.m. on Friday, officials in the Las Vegas, NM area answered a call about a victim of a shooting in El Gasnate, Ribera, a community of about 500 people about 25 miles southwest, according to a state police news release Sunday morning.
Sanchez was taken into custody without incident and booked into the San Miguel County Detention Center, the news release said. He is charged with second degree murder and negligent use of a lethal weapon. According to the San Miguel County Detention Center, he was sent to jail on Saturday.
A message posted on Saturday night by the West Las Vegas Public Schools soccer team’s Twitter account referred to a “terrible tragedy.” A search of West Las Vegas High School football records and reports lists people named Joaquin Sanchez and Josh Vigil as football players for the school.
Reached by phone on Sunday, district sports coach Adrian Gonzales said he did not want to comment because it was “a difficult situation and out of respect for everyone involved”.
District Superintendent Christopher Gutierrez declined to talk about the shooting when he was reached on Saturday, adding, “This is something parents have to grapple with.”
According to the district’s website, students are due to return to class on Wednesday from the winter break. West Las Vegas High School announced on its Facebook page that advisors will be available starting Sunday morning for students and staff who need assistance.
In recent years, a number of teenagers have been arrested in northern New Mexico for gun crimes, on charges ranging from vehicle shooting to first degree murder. In late December, 19-year-old Flavio Gonzales Jr. was arrested for allegedly firing 10 shots at a man who confronted him in a parking lot in Senda del Valle.
In July, the Santa Fe District Sheriff’s Office arrested three teenagers in connection with the death of 19-year-old Isaiah Herrera, a graduate of Pojoaque Valley High School, whose body was found along a roadway in Nambé near his town on February 4 was lived.
In March, 14-year-old Enrique Duran-Garcia was charged with the murder of Guadalupe Gutierrez, 59, and his son Kevin Anthony Gutierrez, 32, at their Villanueva home.
In July 2020, 17-year-old Ivan Perez was fatally shot and killed in an apartment complex in southern Santa Fe. Another teenager, Mario Guizar-Anchondo, was charged with murder. Just one day after prosecutors dropped charges against Guizar-Anchondo, a key witness to the shooting was arrested for alleged involvement in a drive-by shooting.
Estevan Montoya, now 18, was accused of fatally shot and killed Santa Fe High School basketball star Fedonta “JB” White at a party in August 2020. The trial of Montoya is scheduled for May.
Teenage gun violence issues aren’t limited to New Mexico. According to statistics from the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings by more than 7,500 law enforcement, government, media, and trade agencies, there were 1,375 gun violence deaths in the United States in 2020 among those 17 and younger, violence had nearly 1,180 Killed people under the age of 17.
This archive is expected to publish the full statistics for 2021 in January.
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