Santa Fe police say woman fatally shot self while in custody
Aug. 14—New Mexico State Police are investigating the death of a woman due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound while she was in Santa Fe Police Department custody Saturday, state police said Sunday evening.
According to a news release, police were contacted around 8:10 p.m. Saturday to remove Melanie Garcia, 36, from a residence at 1098 Willow Way in Santa Fe. The reporting party told dispatch around 8:50 p.m. that Garcia was destroying property inside the residence.
Sante Fe police officers arrived around 9:20 p.m., according to the release, but Garcia was not at the scene.
Garcia later returned with a firearm, according to the release, and after multiple commands from officers was hit with a stun gun. At around the same time, the woman sustained a "self-inflicted gunshot wound" and died at the scene, the release said.
No officers were injured in the incident, and the names of the officers were not released by state police, who are investigating the incident.
It remains unclear if Garcia lived at the residence and where the woman was wounded. Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Ben Valdez declined to release any further details on the incident, citing the state police investigation.
