By Roger Lanse

On Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, at approximately 3:20 p.m., a Santa Clara Police Department officer responded to a burglary call at a residence in the 300 block of N. Cleveland Street. Dispatchers at the Grant County Regional Dispatch Authority had advised that a male was yelling and would not leave the area.

When the officer arrived, a Santa Clara PD report stated the officer saw a named male inside a garage of a residence where the officer knew the male did not belong. The male walked toward the officer in what was described as a fast and aggressive manner and asked if the officer was a live person and if he was alive. According to the report, the male rambled on about talking to Satan and Lucifer and that everyone in the house was dead.

The report continued saying during the investigation, the male put his arm around the officer as if to hug him but also appeared to be going for the officer’s duty weapon. The officer pushed him away and the male ran to an abandoned house on Hutchinson Street, the report stated.

At this time a Grant County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived to assist the officer, and as they approached the house, according to the report, the suspect ran again. About that time the officers heard a single gunshot, the report said, and they saw a male (victim) at the original house who was yelling and standing over someone. The victim, when asked by the officers if he had shot the suspect, answered no that he had shot it in the air. The officers ordered the victim to put the gun down and he complied, the report stated. The suspect was then placed in the officer’s unit and EMS was called.

According to the report, the victim checked his home and advised that the suspect did get into the home through a window taking only some keys that enabled him to enter a 1998 Honda Civic also belonging to the victim. No damage or any items missing were reported by the victim.

The suspect was transported to the Gila Regional Medical Center ER, the report said, and Santa Clara PD Chief Lonnie Sandoval told the Beat the case was still under investigation.