By Roger Lanse

Thursday, Aug. 6, a Silver City police officer was dispatched at 9:25 p.m. to a Gold Street address in reference to shots fired. Upon arrival, the officer was told that someone drove by in a red car and was firing from the vehicle. According to a statement of probable cause, witnesses told the officer that the vehicle in question went to the Recreation Center on North Silver Street.

When the officer arrived at the Recreation Center, the statement said, he observed a red passenger car in the parking lot with a female standing outside and a male in the driver €™s seat with the driver €™s door open. The male was identified as Manuel Altamirano, 30, of Silver City.

The officer made the observation that Altamirano was “sweating profusely and visibly shaking appearing overly nervous,” according to the statement. The officer also stated that he found a small spent cartridge case which appeared to be .22 caliber on the ground by the vehicle‘s driver’s door and another on the driver’s seat.

Altamirano told the officer, the statement said, that a firearm and its magazine were inside the vehicle. When asked if he had been shooting the gun, Altamirano told the officer, “No,” and began to sweat and shake again, the document stated.

Altamirano then stated that he and his brother had been shooting earlier that day in the Bear Mountain area and the casings must have landed in the car, according to the statement. Then he said that he did, in fact, travel on Gold Street on his way to the Recreation Center and that he heard shots when he was on Gold Street.

According to the statement, when Altamirano was interviewed later by a SCPD detective, Altamirano admitted to shooting three rounds into the air out of his vehicle as he passed the area of 13th and Gold streets. Altamirano was transported to the Grant County Detention Center for booking, and charged with a single count of shooting at or from a motor vehicle, a fourth degree felony. He remains in custody as of 3 p.m., Friday, Aug. 7, under a $5,000 cash only bond, according to GCDC personnel.