The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office on Friday announced that a man has been arrested in a double homicide Wednesday in Bloomfield after a shootout Thursday at a mobile home near Waterflow.
According to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office, detectives and the U.S. Marshals Service on Friday tracked the suspect and a woman from the Bloomfield home to a mobile home near Waterflow.
“San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, Farmington Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service and the New Mexico State Police arrived at the location and began to call out Isaiah Brown and Ravyn Burns,” said the news release from Capt. Kevin Burns, acting public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office.
Brown then fired “numerous rounds at deputies and officers, and two deputies and three Farmington officers returned fire, firing at least one round each,” the news release said.
A fire then broke out in the mobile home and Brown and Ravyn Burns escaped and hid nearby, while law enforcement officers provided protection to allow fire crews to suppress the fire.
“Once the fire was manageable, deputies and officers arrested the female,” the news release said. “The male who was injured from the previous gunfire, was then retrieved and transported to San Juan Regional with serious but nonlife-threatening injuries. The home was a complete loss and multiple residents were evacuated during the incident.”
No law enforcement officers were injured, and the two officers who fired their weapons were placed on standard administrative leave, the news release said.
Facebook posts from the San Juan County Fire and Rescue provided a brief timeline of the shootout and arrests at the mobile home.
San Juan County Fire and Rescue announced on its Facebook page about 6:40 p.m. that crews were fighting a fire in the area of Road 6693 just south of U.S. Highway 64. At 7:16 p.m. an updated post announced that U.S. 64 had reopened, but restrictions were in place on Roads 6693, 6690 and 6694.
“The law enforcement activity is over and fire crews are in the process of putting out a structure fire,” the post said.
Brown faces two counts of second-degree homicide and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. Ravyn Burns was arrested on an outstanding warrant, and additional charges might be considered, the news release said.
According to the Sheriff’s Office news release, the case began about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday when officers from the Bloomfield Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office arrived at a home in the area of County Road 4909 after a report that two people were dead inside a home.
Inside the home, officers and deputies found the bodies of a man and woman with fatal gunshot wounds. Their identities have been withheld until next of kin have been notified.
Detectives responded to the scene and learned that Brown and Burns had been in a room in the back of the Bloomfield house with the man and woman. An argument ensued, and Brown fired, hitting the man and woman, the news release said. Brown and Burns then fled in the victims’ vehicle. They were found the next day at the mobile home.
Several law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation, the news release said. They include the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, Farmington Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service and the New Mexico State Police.
The news release thanked the fire department for its “service and partnership.”
The Tri-City Record will update this story when information comes available.
