Santa Fe County deputy shooting under review after suspected car theft call
A deputy fired once at Mario Muniz near Avanti Court after Muniz raised his hands and, officials say, was unarmed. State police are handling the shooting review.
A Santa Fe County deputy fired once at Mario Muniz near Avanti Court after ordering him to raise his hands, and Muniz complied even though he was not armed. The shooting, which happened around 11 p.m. on a Monday south of Santa Fe near Interstate 25, is under internal review while New Mexico State Police handle the outside investigation.
The call came in as a burglary, with the deputy responding to reports of a possible car theft in the area a few miles south of the city. The deputy arrived near Avanti Court, found Muniz and, by one account, Muniz tried to run away before the shot was fired. Only one round was discharged.
The body camera footage has sharpened the focus on whether the deputy followed protocol after Muniz was already complying. The Santa Fe New Mexican said the footage raised policy questions about the shooting, and Muniz later put his own fear into words when he asked, "What if I would've died?" The case has become less about the original theft call than about the force used once the deputy had contact with Muniz.
That split between the scene response and the review matters in Santa Fe County, where the sheriff’s office is facing questions about oversight and disclosure. State Police, not the sheriff’s office itself, are investigating the shooting, while the sheriff’s office is also conducting an internal review. For residents watching how deputy-involved shootings are handled, those separate tracks are what will determine how much is learned about the decision to fire and whether the department’s own rules were followed.
This is not the first time a deputy shooting in Santa Fe County has drawn scrutiny. A December 2021 case also prompted policy questions, according to a New Mexico Department of Public Safety update and later coverage tied to the same county. That history is likely to keep attention on how the sheriff’s office explains force decisions, how quickly body camera evidence is released, and whether the public gets enough detail to judge the response for itself.
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