Jul. 27—An Algodones man shot and wounded by New Mexico State Police during an incident in Tesuque earlier this week faces a count of aggravated burglary and two counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer.
Galen Mason-Muller, 23, is accused of threatening his girlfriend and her mother at their home Monday night and then pointing a gun at Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies and state police officers, which prompted an officer to fire a shot, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
Mason-Muller was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, the affidavit says. He remained hospitalized Thursday “but his condition is unknown,” state police spokesman Wilson Silver wrote in an email.
State police have not yet released the name of the officer who shot Mason-Muller. The agency said in a news release Tuesday the officer’s identity will not be released “until the investigation is complete.”
The affidavit says the mother of Mason-Muller’s girlfriend had called 911 to report Mason-Muller was on his way to their Tesuque home because her daughter had refused to go to his home, leading to an argument over the phone.
“While [the woman] was contacting 911 she heard someone at her front door whom she assumed was her son,” the affidavit says. “[She] said the door was forced open and Galen entered the residence in an angry demeanor.”
The woman said she saw a gun on Mason-Muller’s hip, and he began chasing her around an island in the kitchen. He then turned his attention to her daughter, allowing the woman to run out the door, according to the affidavit.
State police arrived around 10:15 p.m and found two deputies already at the scene, the state agency said in the news release. The deputies told police they had spotted Mason-Muller brandishing a gun outside the residence.
State police officers told investigators from the agency Mason-Muller threatened law enforcement before one of the officers fired, according to the affidavit.
Officer George Tremann said Mason-Muller had his gun “at a low ready and would pace back and forth,” the affidavit says, adding he “would grip the firearm with both hands. Officer Tremann interrupted this gesture as Galen was preparing to point the firearm towards the Santa Fe County Sheriff Deputies and himself.”
Officer Louie Martinez told an investigator Mason-Muller grabbed the firearm with both hands and “took a bladed stance canting the firearm and pointing it towards the Santa Fe County Sheriff Deputies,” the affidavit says.
Mason-Muller “shifted his body causing the firearm to be pointed towards the other Officers to include himself,” Martinez said. “At this point Officer Martinez felt the lives of the other officers and his were being threatened,” the affidavit says. “In conclusion, [Mason-Muller] was struck with gunfire at least once by a New Mexico State Police Officer.”
Court records show Mason-Muller previously has been accused of intimidating women.
A woman with whom he has a child filed a petition Jan. 10 seeking an order of protection against him. The petition alleged he had been aggressive with her and their then-2 1/2 -month-old son.
“I’m scared for me and my baby,” the woman wrote. She also alleged he had threatened to take the baby from her and never let her see the child again.
State District Court Judge Sylvia F. LaMar issued temporary restraining orders against him in January, February and March before dismissing the case March 30, saying the issue should be resolved in a pending family court case, online court records show.
The pair subsequently came to a custody-sharing arrangement they agreed was working as of earlier this month, according to an order to maintain the schedule.
Santa Fe police filed a criminal complaint in February charging Mason-Muller with two counts of criminal damage to the property of a household member. A woman who described Mason-Muller as an ex-boyfriend called police to report he’d gotten angry and followed her in his vehicle after she’d retrieved her cellphone from his car, the complaint says.
When she stopped at a traffic light, the woman told police, he jumped out and ripped off her driver’s side mirror and threw it at her sister’s car, which was behind her, smashing the windshield, the complaint alleges.
The District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges in April, court records show. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Mendoza wrote in a document dismissing the charges “both victims … are uncooperative and the State cannot proceed with out the victims’ testimonies.”
