The man suspected of discharging a firearm from a moving vehicle in a residential neighborhood on Saturday has been arrested.
Emilio Daniel Palacios, 28, of the 5900 block of Desert Plum Lane, in unincorporated Dona Ana County, is charged with one count of shooting at or from a motor vehicle and one count of tampering with evidence. Both counts are fourth-degree felonies.
Shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday, July 25, Las Cruces police were dispatched to the report of a loud party in the area of Bolack Drive and San Lorenzo Avenue in the Legends West neighborhood. While completing that call, LCPD officers heard gunfire coming from an area just south of their location. As the officers made their way to where the gunfire was coming from, they came into contact with a vehicle traveling toward them at a high rate of speed.
The offices stopped the vehicle that was occupied by three men, including Palacios as the front seat passenger. The vehicle itself was a maroon Ford sedan, reportedly belonging to Palacios, with fictitious Texas license plates.
Officers ordered the three men from the vehicle and took them into temporary custody for investigative purposes. In plain sight from outside the vehicle, officers observed ammunition and a portion of a firearm near the front-passenger seat.
Upon further investigation, Las Cruces police detectives learned that Palacios fired multiple rounds into the air from the vehicle as it traveled along San Miguel Avenue. No injuries were reported.
Palacios was arrested and booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center where he is initially being held without bond. No charges have been filed against the driver or the backseat passenger of the vehicle.