Las Cruces Police charge Santa Fe sheriff’s deputy with murder in death of other deputy

Las Cruces Police have charged a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputy with an open count of murder in the shooting death of another deputy early Tuesday morning.

Tai R. Chan, 27, a warrant officer with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, was charged Tuesday afternoon and booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center without bond.

Police say that Chan allegedly shot Deputy Jeremy Martin several times, on the 7th Floor of Hotel Encanto sometime before 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28. Martin died at Memorial Medical Center from his wounds.

Chan’s attorney, John Day, told the Associated Press that details were limited and he was on his way to Las Cruces.

“It’s a tragic situation for everybody involved,” Day said.

Investigators learned the deputies were traveling back to Santa Fe from Arizona after transporting a prisoner.

“I have grief counselors or crisis counselors here now meeting with a lot of my personnel, but it’s a grieving law enforcement agency,” Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia said in a news conference Tuesday morning.

He said Martin had been a deputy for two-and-a-half years, and Chan was on the force for three years.

Martin, a patrol officer, was married and had three children, all under the age of 10, the sheriff’s office said.

At an emotional news conference, Garcia called both deputies “hardworking, committed individuals.”

“I’m lost,” Garcia said. “I’m at a loss for words.”

The deputies stopped in Las Cruces and rented a room Monday at around 4 p.m. at Hotel Encanto, located at 705 S. Telshor Boulevard.

Police said the deputies went to Dublin’s Pub Monday evening, located at 1745 E. University Avenue.

Officials believe they consumed alcohol there and shortly after got into a fight.

Police said the deputies returned to their hotel room around midnight on the 7th floor where the argument escalated.

It is still unclear what the deputies were fighting about.

Chan allegedly fired several rounds from a semi-automatic weapon, which police believe to be his duty weapon, at Martin.

Martin reportedly tried to get into an elevator.

Shortly before 12:30 a.m. Las Cruces Police were called out to the hotel and found Martin bleeding ‘profusely’ outside an elevator in the hotel lobby, officials said. He had several gunshot wounds to his back and arms.

Martin was taken to Mountain View Regional Medical Center where he died.

Police found the suspected shooter in a stairwell near the roof of the hotel and took him into custody.