By Vic Vela
Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE — The gun used in Thursday’s fatal shooting of a young man outside a Santa Fe mall belongs to a State Police officer who is in a relationship with the teenage suspect’s mother, according to law enforcement authorities.
District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco said city police on Friday afternoon matched the serial number of the .357-caliber semiautomatic handgun used to kill 18-year-old Chris Aguayo to that of the state-issued firearm belonging to the officer. State Police confirmed late Friday that the officer is Trace Spoonhoward. Spoonhoward declined to comment when reached by a reporter Friday afternoon. Santa Fe police said 16-year-old Michael Trujillo shot Aguayo multiple times in a “feud” involving Trujillo’s girlfriend.
Trujillo shot Aguayo in the parking lot of Santa Fe Place mall on the city’s south side, after he and his girlfriend had set up a meeting with Aguayo, according to police and Aguayo’s mother.
Denise Aguayo said she never met the teenage girl, Brittney Lopez, who was the source of their feud.
"(Chris) was texting this girl, and her boyfriend didn’t want them texting,” Denise Aguayo told the Journal in a phone interview. "(Chris) didn’t even know him. He told him, ‘We’re just friends.’”
She said the girl wanted the two boys to get together to work out their differences at the mall.
“Well, his intentions were different,” Santa Fe police Sgt. Louis Carlos said. "(Trujillo) was jealous and insecure in thinking that Chris was moving in on his girl.”
Lopez said that she was good friends with Aguayo but that Trujillo “resented their friendship,” according to a police statement of probable cause. While at the mall, Lopez told police that her boyfriend and Aguayo got out of their vehicles and that, when she saw Trujillo pull out his gun, she shouted: “No, don’t do this. You don’t have to do this; don’t shoot him,” the police report states.
Trujillo pushed Lopez to the side and fired his weapon several times. After Aguayo fell to the ground, Trujillo walked up to the victim and unloaded several more rounds from the gun, according to the report.
When asked about the incident while in police custody, Trujillo said: “I know I did wrong. I’m not trying to get out of anything,” according to the report.
Aguayo - who liked to play basketball, dress sharply and drink iced tea, according to his parents - died at a hospital Thursday evening.
Trujillo, who has no criminal history in New Mexico, according to the state Children, Youth and Families Department, is in custody on an open count of murder. He is expected to be arraigned Monday. While Trujillo was being interviewed by Santa Fe police, he told detectives that his “stepdad” is a State Police officer, according to Carlos. But he is not believed to be Trujillo’s legal guardian.
Meeting at mall
Carlos said police had not interviewed the State Police officer as to how Trujillo got hold of his gun.
“He’s still not speaking to us yet,” Carlos said. “Until he gives us a formal statement, we don’t know from where Michael got the gun, or if (the officer) left it laying around.”
State Police Lt. Eric Garcia, a spokesman for the department, issued this statement: “We are going to cooperate fully with the investigation that the Santa Fe Police Department is investigating. We are internally looking at how the suspect obtained our officer’s duty weapon.”
Denise Aguayo told the Journal that Lopez set it up so that Trujillo and Aguayo would meet at the mall to talk about their differences.
“She felt like she was caught in the middle of her boyfriend and her friend and suggested that they speak,” Carlos said.
Lopez told police that Trujillo picked her up at her home at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Trujillo then told his girlfriend to call Aguayo because he “wanted to talk to him,” according to the police probable cause statement. Lopez made the call, and it was agreed that they meet at the mall.
Once they arrived at the mall, Lopez told police, that Trujillo and Aguayo got out of their vehicles and it was then that she first noticed her boyfriend’s handgun. Lopez then ran toward them and tried to get between her boyfriend and Aguayo, only to be pushed aside by Trujillo, according to the report. Trujillo then opened fire and fled the scene with his girlfriend. He was arrested within 15 to 20 minutes of the shooting.
While in custody, Trujillo allegedly told police: "(Aguayo) didn’t do (expletive) (to instigate the situation). I was just pissed at him because he was talking (expletive). I know the gun wasn’t the answer. I don’t know, I just (expletive) panicked, and he was pissing me off.”
Trujillo also told police that his girlfriend wanted them to meet, and she said Aguayo was a member of a gang who was “always strapped.”
“So, I had (a gun) just in case,” Trujillo allegedly told police. He also said that as he saw Aguayo come toward his car, “I got out and shot him.
“I shot the whole gun,” he said. “There’s no more bullets in that gun. I shot them all at him from here to the numbers on that police car.”
‘Big heart’
Aguayo - who also had no prior criminal history in the state, according to CYFD - was working toward obtaining his GED and was employed at Sam’s Club, according to his parents. They described him as having a “big heart.”
John Aguayo, Chris’ father, said one of the reasons his son was at the mall Thursday was because he had just gotten paid and wanted to buy some clothes.
“My son was a big ham,” said Aguayo. “And he liked to dress nice and look good for the girls.”
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