Questions raised on how Santa Fe police officer’s son died; guns, ammo seized from home | Local News

The Rio Rancho police received the call around 8:30 a.m. December 8: A desperate Courtney Harmon said her two-year-old son “fell off a chair” and there was “blood everywhere,” according to a search warrant sworn affidavit.

The document, filed in the 13th District Court, is the first public record of the fatal shooting of the young son of a Santa Fe police officer. The Rio Rancho and Santa Fe Police Department provided little information about the incident and declined to identify the killed toddler or the officer.

In the affidavit, the boy is referred to as Lincoln Harmon and his father as Officer Jonathan Harmon, 28.

While it does include some new details, the document may raise more questions than it answers about how Lincoln died that morning.

As the couple waited for first responders to arrive, Jonathan Harmon told dispatchers that he was performing CPR to try to resuscitate his son, the affidavit said, adding that his wife could be heard in the background upset and crying and begged her child to breathe.

The Santa Fe official said he did not see his son pass out. The boy was bleeding profusely from his mouth and teeth were missing, he told the dispatchers.

When police reached the house on Sandoval Drive in the Enchanted Hills area of ​​Rio Rancho, they found a used grenade case and “projectile” on the kitchen floor next to the child. An empty holster lay on a table. An investigator asked the couple if there were guns in the house, the affidavit said, and Courtney Harmon told her, “The gun was kept in a kitchen cabinet.”

The search warrant included DNA evidence, body fluids, firearms, ammunition and anything else in the home that was deemed necessary for the investigation. Investigators, who carried it out later that evening, confiscated two AR-15 rifles, two Glock handguns, a holster, a magazine, numerous rounds of 9mm ammunition, a tooth and blood samples from the kitchen and master bedroom, it is said in the document.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Martinez said that a search warrant does not necessarily indicate that the family has not consented to a police house search, as it is often common for officials to request a warrant prior to a search.

“An arrest warrant is only intended to ensure that no one violates the right to privacy,” said Martinez, prosecutor for the 13th district attorney’s office. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that the indictment arises or not. It might or not, but it doesn’t show the way.”

The Rio Rancho police have not announced whether they will bring charges against Lincoln’s death.

Jonathan and Courtney Harmon’s social media profiles show the couple in multiple photos with Lincoln and two other children, including a toddler.

Officials from the state Department of Children, Youth and Family have not responded to inquiries about whether the agency was involved in responding to Lincoln’s death or whether it took any of the family’s children into custody.

Rio Rancho police spokesman Capt. Joel Holt declined to say whether there were other children in Harmon’s home at the time of the shooting that killed Lincoln, or why the department did not publicly identify the child who was killed and others has confirmed family members.

“I will review these questions for further publication, but by this point we have published all of the information available to us,” he wrote in an email.

Santa Fe Interim Police Chief Paul Joye declined to comment on Lincoln’s death and Jonathan Harmon’s status with the police. He said he was aware of the search warrant and will continue to contact Rio Rancho police to provide information about the progress of the investigation.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to raise funds for Lincoln’s Celebration of Life. “On December 8, the Harmon family was struck by an unexpected tragedy with the death of Lincoln Harmon,” read a post on the site.

By Tuesday night, she had raised over $ 24,000, far more than her target of $ 8,000. Donors included members of the Santa Fe Police Department, including Captain Matthew Champlin and Lt. Thomas Grundler.