A suspect was taken into custody after allegedly shooting and wounding a man at a protest Thursday in Española where officials had planned to install a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate, authorities said.
Rio Arriba County sheriff’s officials said Ryan Martinez, 23, was taken into custody in connection with the shooting outside county offices where protesters had gathered and lingered after the instillation of a monument was cancelled.
Authorities said they were not currently seeking any other suspects in connection with the shooting.
The wounded man was shot in the upper torso and was being treated at a local hospital, according to sheriff’s officials.
The names of the wounded man and the suspect were not immediately released. Authorities said a motive for the shooting was unclear.
The Albuquerque Journal reported there was a scuffle among activists protesting the installation of the statue.
Oñate, who arrived in present-day New Mexico in 1598, is celebrated as a cultural father figure in communities along the Upper Rio Grande that trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers. But he is also reviled for his brutality.
To Native Americans, Oñate is known for having ordered the right feet cut off of 24 captive tribal warriors after his soldiers stormed Acoma Pueblo’s mesa-top “sky city.” That attack was precipitated by the killing of Onate’s nephew.
In 1998, someone sawed the right foot off the statue of Oñate near Española.
A likeness of Oñate among a caravan of Spanish colonists set in bronze outside an Albuquerque city museum has also drawn protests since it was installed in the late 1990s.
Opponents say that statue glorifies white supremacy and in recent years have called for Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller to remove it.
