San Juan County man accused of shooting at neighbor’s house

Deputies were called shortly after 7 a.m. to a home north of Aztec where Jeffrey Schoeller was accused of firing at his neighbor’s house, with bullets passing through the walls, a report that raised immediate concern for nearby families in the rural neighborhood.

The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said Schoeller was taken into custody around 11:30 p.m. on April 6 after a day of negotiations and multiple less-than-lethal options. He was being held at the San Juan County Adult Detention Center on two counts of shooting at a dwelling or occupied building without great bodily harm, both fourth-degree felonies under New Mexico law.

The sheriff’s office made the case public on April 9. By then, the incident had already become a major law-enforcement operation on County Road 2842, where reporting said Schoeller had barricaded himself inside his home and the standoff had lasted nearly 15 hours. SWAT teams were involved, underscoring how quickly a call about gunfire at a residence can turn into a high-risk response in a small community.

Investigators have not said anyone was hurt. What they have described is gunfire aimed at an occupied home, with rounds going through the walls, a scenario that put neighbors and anyone nearby at risk even before deputies arrived. The sheriff’s office framed the case as a public-safety matter, saying every resident deserves to feel safe in their own home.

Authorities also have not said what led up to the shooting or whether additional charges could follow. A motion filed by the San Juan County District Attorney’s Office sought pretrial detention, and reporting said law enforcement found 20 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition inside the residence.

The sheriff’s office patrol division serves unincorporated parts of San Juan County, except sections inside the Navajo Indian Reservation, which is why deputies were the primary responders in the area north of Aztec. For communities such as Aztec and Blanco, the case stands out because it involved an alleged direct threat to a neighbor’s house, not a general disturbance, and because the court now must decide how to handle a defendant accused of repeated gunfire at a dwelling.