Aztec Man Arrested After 15-Hour Standoff, Shooting at Drone and Robot

Jeffrey Schoeller, 61, was taken into custody just before midnight after a standoff that stretched nearly 15 hours, during which he fired shots at a police drone and a camera-equipped robot deployed outside his Aztec home. The San Juan County Sheriff's Office found 20 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition inside his residence after the arrest, a particularly striking discovery given that Schoeller has been legally prohibited from possessing firearms since a 2022 court ruling that he was incompetent to stand trial.

The incident began at 7:04 a.m. Thursday when the Sheriff's Office received a report of shots fired at a neighboring home. Deputies arrived at Schoeller's property at 8:07 a.m., but he refused to exit. SWAT teams from both the Farmington Police Department and New Mexico State Police responded to assist.

Neighbor Eddie Padilla told authorities that Schoeller had fired multiple shots at his house on prior occasions, with rounds striking near a bedroom window. Those previous incidents were severe enough that Padilla had constructed a berm on his property specifically to stop projectiles from reaching the home. Padilla's wife was outside with him when the shooting resumed Thursday morning.

As the standoff wore into midday, Schoeller fired at a police drone deployed by authorities, causing approximately $300 in damage. Around 9:00 p.m., New Mexico State Police sent a camera-equipped robot onto the property to assess conditions; Schoeller opened fire on it as well. At approximately 11:45 p.m., Schoeller finally stepped outside, refused officers' commands, and was subdued with a Taser before being taken into custody. No injuries were reported despite the prolonged standoff.

Schoeller faces a fourth-degree felony count of shooting at a dwelling, a misdemeanor count of resisting an officer, two petty misdemeanor counts of negligent use of a firearm, and a petty misdemeanor count of criminal damage to property for the disabled drone.

The volume of weapons recovered places the case within a broader pattern of gun violence in San Juan County, where law enforcement agencies recorded 792 violent crime arrests in 2024 and 11 homicides in each of the past two years, most linked to guns and domestic violence. The county's violent crime index of 31.8 exceeds the national average of 22.7.