Suspect in MAGA hat arrested for shooting at New Mexico protest

The planned installation of a statue of conquistador Juan de Oñate had sparked anger.

Oñate arrived in present-day New Mexico in 1598 and memorialising him divides opinion among local communities. He is celebrated by some as a cultural father figure, but condemned by others for his brutality.

To Native Americans, Oñate is known for having ordered the right feet cut off of 24 captive tribal warriors after his soldiers stormed the Acoma Pueblo’s mesa-top “sky city”. That attack was supposedly precipitated by the killing of Oñate’s nephew.

In 1998, someone sawed the right foot off a statue in protest.

According to the AP, Sheriff Billy Merrifield had expressed concerns about safety issues to county commissioners about reinstalling the statue in Española outside the county building. He said he was grateful to the commissioners who decided against proceeding.

In 2020, a man was shot in New Mexico’s largest city, Albuquerque, as protestors tried to tear down a bronze statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate outside a city museum.

Police later announced that the monument would be removed until next steps could be determined.

Now, three years later, chaos erupted as another person was shot and rushed to hospital during a similar protest on Thursday in which people were demonstrating against the reinstallation of the Oñate statue — an event county officials had already postponed in anticipation of potential trouble.

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Rio Arriba County sheriff’s officials said Ryan Martinez, 23, was taken into custody in connection with the shooting, which took place outside county offices in the city of Española, according to the Associated Press.

Pictures and video showed a man brandishing a firearm. The same man was earlier wearing a red hat bearing the words “Make America Great Again”.

The wounded man was reportedly shot in the upper torso and taken to a nearby hospital, though no further details were made immediately available by officials. The victim had identified himself as Native American to a photographer from The Albuquerque Journal shortly before the incident.