Details emerge in Santa Fe Starbucks robbery, shooting during high-speed chase

Nov. 30—New Mexico State Police on Monday identified 26-year-old Jacob Alejandro Montoya Jr. of Bernalillo as the man shot by law enforcement Friday in Torrance County after he was accused of robbing a Starbucks in Santa Fe and later leading officers on a high-speed pursuit for about 50 miles along U.S. 285.

While Montoya survived his gunshot wounds and is recovering in an Albuquerque hospital, a woman riding in the black Kia with him, who was accused of firing on officers, was killed in the shooting, state police have said.

Lt. Mark Soriano, a spokesman for the agency, said the woman's identity has not yet been released by the state Office of the Medical Investigator.

Montoya has not been charged, though Soriano and Santa Fe police Lt. David Webb both said criminal charges will be filed after his release from the hospital.

The incident — which involved Santa Fe police, the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, the Torrance County Sheriff's Office and state police — marks the fourth shooting this year by Santa Fe County deputies; three have resulted in fatalities. There have been two other law enforcement shootings in the Santa Fe area in 2021.

Friday's incident began in the morning at a Starbucks on South St. Francis Drive, where Santa Fe police said Montoya and the woman held up baristas at gunpoint in a drive-thru window and then fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

After Santa Fe police issued an alert for the vehicle — a black Kia with no license plate — Santa Fe County deputies discovered the car on Richards Avenue. They pursued the pair more than 50 miles on U.S. 285 before state police and Torrance County sheriff's deputies joined the chase near Clines Corners, according to a state police news release.

The woman in the Kia began firing shots at law enforcement vehicles, the release said, and officers from all three agencies returned fire. Montoya crashed the car into a tree about two miles south of Clines Corners.

Negotiators were able to convince him to get out of the car through the driver's side window, Soriano said, and he was taken into custody and flown to a hospital in Albuquerque with injuries that were not life-threatening.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Montoya has a criminal history dating back to 2019, when he was convicted of receiving or transferring stolen vehicles and possession of a controlled substance, court records show.

He has been arrested several times this year in Bernalillo and Sierra counties, and faces charges of aggravated fleeing from law enforcement, possession of a firearm by a felon and shooting from a motor vehicle. He has two active bench warrants stemming from those cases, court records show.