Protesters made multiple calls to 911 after a man was shot during a protest in New Mexico over the removal of a conquistador statue.
Armed New Mexico Civil Guard members clashed with rioters working to topple a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Onate in Albuquerque on Monday, leaving one man shot but in stable condition.
A reporter for local outlet KOB4, Megan Abundis, tweeted a video showing a man in a blue shirt running away from the crowd, as yells of, “We’re going to f—ing kill you,” “Get his license plate,” and “Get the cop” are heard.
Gunshots are then heard.
We just obtained video of the shooting. pic.twitter.com/yjB6NHdKe2
— Megan Abundis (@meganrabundis) June 16, 2020
Abundis tweeted that multiple calls to 911 were made after the shooting.
Police arrested the man in the blue shirt, identified as Stephen Ray Baca, 31, for the shooting and charged him with aggravated battery. Additional information on the man who was shot has not yet been released.
Someone’s been shot. Multiple people calling 911. Chaos. pic.twitter.com/jxNjIvYJuf
— Megan Abundis (@meganrabundis) June 16, 2020
The phrase “New Mexico self defense shooting” also trended on Twitter following reports on the matter.
The man attacked by ANTIFA in New Mexico could have shot when he was beaten with the plank of wood with metal bolted to it (skateboard), but he didn’t.
He retreated yet the terrorist mob chased him down and attacked, yelling “kill him!”
That’s as justified as a shooting gets.
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) June 16, 2020
The scene was the latest violent protest in the wake of George Floyd’s death while he was in police custody on Memorial Day. It comes as protesters across the country are calling for local police departments to be defunded. Several local governments have already made plans to restructure funding for law enforcement.
A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council signed a pledge earlier this month to dismantle the city police department and reallocate funding to other areas of the city’s public safety budget.
“We’re here because we hear you. We are here today because George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis Police. We are here because here in Minneapolis and in cities across the United States it is clear that our existing system of policing and public safety is not keeping our communities safe,” Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender said. “Our efforts at incremental reform have failed. Period.”
In Los Angeles, the city council proposed legislation that would slash the police budget by up to $150 million.
“We need to rethink what it is that makes people safer and makes communities stronger. We cannot just look at the police in isolation,” the motion read. “There is no doubt that communities of color suffer disproportionately from negative interactions with the police.”
An ABC/Ipsos poll released last week showed that 64% of those polled oppose defunding the police, and 60% oppose reallocating some funds from the police to social and health programs.
