By Roger Lanse

A party that got out of hand seems to be the source of several calls to Grant County Regional Dispatch Authority reporting shots fired in the area of Shady Grove and Canal Street on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, at about 1:35 a.m. According to a Silver City Police Department incident report, officers responded quickly to the area and to a white Ford vehicle behind the SCPD with a victim.

The victim, Alix Rivera, 18, of Bayard, was bleeding from his right cheek and answered in the affirmative when asked by officers if he had been shot. The driver of the vehicle, Miguel Misquez, 40, of Bayard, told officers he and his friends were at the party when a fight broke out, and to his knowledge, the only person with a handgun at the party was a juvenile, WL.

Another witness, a juvenile female, SL, told officers Rivera tried to break up the fight and got pistol-whipped in the face by WL. SL said she jumped on WL's back and started to "choke him out." While another male was punching Rivera, the female said, another male "grabbed his handgun and shot about six shots to the ground." After the shots were fired, the witness said they left.

Misquez told officers WL had fled the scene in a red Nissan vehicle. With Misquez riding along, officers promptly located that vehicle in the McDonald's parking lot, and made contact with WL, who denied having a gun and doing the shooting, pointing to another male as the one who shot toward the ground. Officers were unable to find a weapon on WL's person or in his vehicle.

Returning from McDonald's, at SCPD, Misquez "started to seize up," the report said. Both Rivera and Misquez were seen by EMS and transported to Gila Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Determining where the shots were fired, officers went to 753 E. 17th Street and located empty cartridge cases at the residence.