Joseph Sifuentes arrested in Bayard shooting incident

By Roger Lanse

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, Feb. 4, Ian Goodyear, of Silver City, was airlifted to University Medical Center in El Paso, after being found shot on Empire Street in Bayard, according to reliable sources and a New Mexico State Police press release. Goodyear is in critical/stable condition, the release said.

A suspect in the shooting, Joseph Sifuentes, 39, of Bayard, was originally thought on Thursday, Feb. 5, based on a tip, to be at a Hutchinson Street residence in Santa Clara. However, the tip proved incorrect, but Sifuentes was taken into custody later, without incident, according to a Grant County Sheriff's Department spokesman, about 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 6, along U.S. Highway 180 in Arenas Valley near the VFW building,

The GCSD responded initially to the shooting on Wednesday, but then requested the New Mexico State Police Crime Scene Investigation Team to be involved and that team has now assumed responsibility for the investigation.

Santa Clara Police Chief Lonnie Sandoval told the Beat he and his department greatly appreciates the efforts of NMSP, Las Cruces Police Department SWAT Team, Bayard Police Department and GCSD, as they attempted to locate Sifuentes in Santa Clara on Thursday, Feb. 5.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, Sifuentes was just arriving at the Grant County Detention Center for incarceration, according to a GCDC spokesman.