Santa Fe police and state police near the scene of an incident Friday that closed a portion of Cerrillos Road after a man with a butcher knife barricaded himself in a hallway of a Motel 6.
A section of the northbound lanes of Cerrillos Road were closed Friday while Santa Fe police and state police responded to an incident involving a man holding a butcher knife.
Santa Fe police and state police near the scene of an incident Friday that closed a portion of Cerrillos Road after a man with a butcher knife barricaded himself in a hallway of a Motel 6.
Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican
A section of the northbound lanes of Cerrillos Road were closed Friday while Santa Fe police and state police responded to an incident involving a man holding a butcher knife.
A man armed with a butcher knife was arrested Friday morning at a Motel 6 on Cerrillos Road after he barricaded himself in a hallway, Santa Fe police said in a news release.
Officers responded to a call at 9:57 a.m. reporting a man with a knife was yelling at people in the parking lot of the nearby Stage Coach Motor Inn, between Vegas Verdes Drive and Richards Avenue, the release said.
When police arrived, they encountered 39-year-old David Gutierrez of Albuquerque, who brandished a butcher knife. He ran down the street and into the Motel 6. Officers’ attempts to stop him, using beanbag rounds, failed.
Gutierrez barricaded himself in a hallway, police said. Hotel occupants were evacuated while the Santa Fe Police Department’s crisis negotiations and special operations teams responded to the scene, the release said.
After an hour, negotiations for a peaceful surrender failed when Gutierrez attempted to run. A police officer fired what the news release described as a “less-lethal impact munition” and hit him, and officers were able to take him into custody.
Gutierrez was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and one count of resisting arrest.
No officers or bystanders were injured during the operation, Santa Fe police Capt. Anthony Tapia said.
Gutierrez was bruised from being hit by the “less-lethal” munition but was medically cleared to be booked into the Santa Fe County jail.
Tapia said officers had a recent encounter with Gutierrez, but his motive for the Friday incident was unclear.
Northbound Cerrillos Road was shut down during the incident, and traffic was disrupted in the 3800 block while officers attempted negotiations with Gutierrez. The road was reopened around 1:30 p.m.
