Everyone in the neighborhood seemed to love their evening visits to the corner of Declovina and Rosina streets. And Maria was the type of neighbor who wasn't shy — she'd walk right up no matter who you were.
That is why so many people in the central-Santa Fe community near Cerrillos Road and St. Michael's Drive were shocked to hear three gunshots Sunday evening — two of which struck and killed Maria, a Nigerian dwarf goat who lived with two other goats and several other animals at the home in the 1200 block of Declovina Street.
"Total shock and disbelief was all I could think," said one of two women who own the goat. They were inside their home when the drive-by shooting happened. "At this point, so many thoughts go through your mind. Why would someone do this? Are they going to come back? What if we were out in the yard when it happened?"
Maria was about 5 years old, according to her owners, who, along with several neighbors, asked not to be named as long as a motive for the shooting is unclear.
Santa Fe police on Wednesday were at the home with a metal detector searching the yard for the third bullet that was fired from a blue-green minivan, similar in style to a Plymouth Voyager. The vehicle pulled up in front of the house heading south on Declovina before firing what police believe was a .25-caliber firearm three times. The van sped away before the two women were able to get any more identification of the vehicle.
"I don't know why anyone would do this," one neighbor said. "These animals here have become almost a sense of community pride. They're a talking point and have really brought the community together. There has never been any problems with the animals living here."
Maria's owners, one of whom is an emergency medical technician, tried for more than an hour and a half Sunday night to care for the dying goat, which was shot once in the abdomen and once through a nasal passage. Neighbors throughout the night came and tried to help, comfort and cry with one another.
Maria died around 7 p.m.
The goat owners say their three goats — Bella and Maria's son, Sonny, both survived — have been so embraced by the community that they've met neighbors they never knew they had. The women also have 12 chickens, four cats, a dog and a duck — most of which were rescue animals.
"We try to do whatever we can to make sure the neighbors are always OK with our animals being here and take good care of them, and for the most part, there have never been any problems in the neighborhood because of the animals," one of the owners said. "In fact, we have neighbors stopping by each night bringing their compost over for the goats to eat. They love it."
One neighbor even rented out the three goats this past summer to eat the weeds in her backyard.
"Just about every night neighbors come by to see the animals, and we've got to know so many people," one of the animal owners said. "This is what has been so amazing about raising these animals is how they've brought a whole community together."
One community member in particular has had a hard time understanding the shooting.
"My 9-year-old son, he would walk our dog down here to see the goats every morning before school," one neighbor said. "When he heard about what happened, he started worrying that they're going to shoot Lucy (the family's Chihuahua dog) and now he doesn't want to come outside and hasn't walked Lucy before school yet this week. He's scared. We're all a little scared about this."
Aside from the obvious animal-cruelty charges the shooter faces, Santa Fe police could also pursue felony charges of shooting at an occupied dwelling and negligent use of a firearm.
"The fact that this was a goat getting killed is bad enough," Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler said. "But this is also a drive-by shooting of a home in the middle of the city. That's a major concern for us."
Police ask that anyone with information on the shooting call CrimeStoppers at 955-5050.
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