Santa Fe County deputies: Man killed in Tesuque was in 'rage'
Jul. 27—Edward Daniel Santana continued to charge at Santa Fe County deputies even after he was stunned with a Taser, had cut his own neck and was struck by a bullet, according to newly released reports.
The New Mexico State Police documents, released Monday under a public records request, describe Santana's attack on his mother at her Tesuque home the morning of July 7 and deputies' attempts to arrest him before they fired two shots at him.
Santana, 45, died at the scene. His 67-year-old mother, Delia Cervantes, died later that day at a local hospital.
Santana's death was the third fatal law enforcement shooting in the Santa Fe area in two weeks.
The incident began when Santana arrived at the home on Entrada Capulin in his blue Chevrolet truck.
His aunt, Maria Valenzuela, told state police investigators she was in the restroom when she heard her sister, Santana's mother, begin to scream, the reports say.
When she emerged, Valenzuela said, she found Santana stabbing Cervantes with a knife out on the porch. Valenzuela fled to the driveway to call police, she said, and when she turned back, she saw Santana strangling Cervantes with a belt.
A neighbor tried to help Valenzuela call police, but both were struggling due to poor cellphone reception, the state police reports say. The women finally got through to emergency dispatchers, and county deputies arrived at the home.
Santana was standing in the doorway.
When the deputies initially ordered him to get down, the neighbor told state police, he appeared as if he were planning to comply, but then charged toward a deputy. The deputy tased him, the neighbor said.
As the deputy then tried to put handcuffs on Santana, he became aggressive, the reports say. He charged and assaulted the deputy "about four times."
Eventually, Santana escaped from the deputies' grasp and ran back into the house, the neighbor told police. When he came back outside, she said, he was "full of blood" and had a slit on his neck.
Santana began charging at the deputies with something in his hand, the neighbor said, and that is when they fired. After he was shot, he got up "in a rage and so much aggression," the woman told state police.
Investigators found four taser probes and two 9 mm shell casings at the home, along with a knife with a red handle, a black belt and a white shirt with blood and punctures on it, the reports said.
Valenzuela told state police Santana had been texting his mother that morning. He would only text her when he was on some sort of narcotic, she said, according to the report.
Other family members said in an interview about a week after the deadly incident that drug use had begun to change him in the months leading up to the incident.
State police have not yet released video footage of the incident from the deputies' dashboard and body cameras or the names of the deputies involved.
