Fireman accused of shooting gun while chasing stolen car

By Sasha Lenninger

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — A Bernalillo County fireman is being released from jail after taking matters into his own hands.

On Dec. 26, the Albuquerque Police Department was dispatched to a located stolen vehicle in southwest Albuquerque near Tower Road SW and Unser Boulevard SW.

The man who called the police, Steven Trujillo, a local firefighter and owner of the stolen truck.

According to a criminal complaint, Trujillo was told to stop following the truck, but he refused.

“Defendant advised he was armed with a 9 mm handgun and an AR-style rifle and that he had fired it into the air,” said John Kloss, a state prosecutor, during Trujillo’s pretrial detention hearing Wednesday morning.

Police said Trujillo admitted to firing the gun into the air near Cesar Chavez and 2nd Street.

“There were two impacts inside the passenger are into the passenger side of the Tundra, ” said Kloss. “Firing in the air on multiple occasions from a driving vehicle and then apparently firing at a Tundra, resulting in impacts to the tundra. So, it is clearly a dangerous behavior and clearly a violent, violent offense.”

Kloss asked the judge to keep Trujillo in jail until his trial and claimed his history shows a pattern of failing to comply.

“As a firefighter, Your Honor, defendant ought to have a heightened understanding of the importance of being committed to public safety, especially as a longtime firefighter and defendant ought to know that firing a weapon from a moving vehicle is dangerous,” said Kloss.

Trujillo’s attorney disagrees, telling a judge her client’s past offenses are minor and decades old. They include a misdemeanor DWI and unpaid fines.

“To pay fines and costs, Your Honor, we would allege, is a matter of financial ability to pay. Not as much an affirmative decision to go out and commit a new crime,” said Michelle Frechette. “Mr. Trujillo has no felony criminal history prior to this charge. It’s been 23 years since his last misdemeanor DWI. The majority of the state’s allegations related to the insurance or failures to appear are based in animal control cases, and four of which on a bench warrant history were based on the DWI in 1997.”

Meanwhile, the man accused of stealing Trujillo’s car spent less time in jail than Trujillo himself.

According to a criminal complaint, officers arrested Omar Antillon nearby at a restaurant after he crashed the stolen truck into other vehicles and ran.

KOAT has learned Antillon is not his real name. It is an alias name he provided to officers more than once. His real name is Juan Terrazas.

KOAT was also sent dash camera video of the incident Wednesday night. In it, you can see the stolen Tundra crash into at least three vehicles, before Terrazas runs off.

The family with the dash camera begins to call 911 when they spot someone with a gun, followed by at least seven gunshots.

“Please, there is somebody shooting over here. There was a wreck. It’s at Fourth and Bridge. They were shooting people. There’s a guy with a gun,” the family told dispatchers. “There were two different people. One guy had an AK-47. The other guy was shooting with a pistol.”

This video was not mentioned in any criminal complaints for Trujillo or Terrazas.

In fact, the criminal complaint was written so poorly, a judge admitted she had trouble understanding what happened.

“I read this complaint over three times because it is very confusing as to who did what and who had firearms,” said Judge Lucy Solomon.

The Albuquerque officer writing the complaint said in part:

Upon arrival, Steven was not armed with any firearms. A witness said someone in all black opened the door of the Tundra and shot inside. Steven was dressed in all black clothing. Jeromy Trujillo was armed with the AR-style rifle.

Terrazas was released from jail the next day following this incident.

Records show that he was arrested again on Dec. 30 for shoplifting. He was released two days later.

According to the Metropolitan Detention Center, Terrazas has been incarcerated there multiple times.

His background is something Trujillo’s attorney brought up during Wednesday’s hearing.

“He had prior cases, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon, receiving and transferring stolen motor vehicle, probation violations for those items … Another aggravated assault with a deadly weapon tampering and concealing I.D,” said Frechette.

State prosecutors filed a motion to detain Trujillo until his trial, saying:

“Shooting at a motor vehicle from another motor vehicle is dangerous. That danger is not negated by the fact that one is shooting at one’s own vehicle that was stolen. Frustration with the level of crime in our community is widely shared, however, it is not acceptable behavior to take the law into your own hands and become judge, jury and executioner.”

A judge decided to release Trujillo, claiming the criminal complaint was hard to follow, and his prior criminal history does not present a danger to the public. Trujillo must remove all weapons from his home.

Trujillo is a fireman with Bernalillo County Fire and Rescue. The department told KOAT, Trujillo is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

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