{"id":128447,"date":"2026-04-07T18:19:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-man-arrested-after-15-hour-standoff-with-swat-teams\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T18:19:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:19:52","slug":"aztec-man-arrested-after-15-hour-standoff-with-swat-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-man-arrested-after-15-hour-standoff-with-swat-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztec man arrested after 15-hour standoff with SWAT teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jeffrey
Jeffrey Schoeller, 61, of Aztec, was at the center of an April 6 SWAT standoff on County Road 2842 in Aztec.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An Aztec man who is legally prohibited from possessing firearms held two SWAT teams at bay for nearly 15 hours Monday, shooting at a police drone and a police robot before he was arrested.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Schoeller, 61, was arrested outside his home on County Road 2842. Inside the residence, law enforcement found 20 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to a pretrial detention motion filed by the San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Schoeller was committed to the state hospital in 2022 after being found incompetent to stand trial. Under federal law, that status bars him from possessing firearms, according to the motion.<\/p>\n

The San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office was called at 7:04 a.m. March 6 to the home after reports that Schoeller had fired multiple shots at a neighbor\u2019s house, according to an arrest affidavit.<\/p>\n

Neighbors Eddie and Misty Padilla told authorities they were outside when the shooting began. It was not an isolated incident; Eddie Padilla built a berm to prevent projectiles from striking residences on his property, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n

Investigators found two defects about 3 feet above a bedroom window and believe they were caused by gunfire, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Deputies arrived at the property at 8:07 a.m., but Schoeller refused to leave the home. SWAT teams from the Farmington Police Department and New Mexico State Police responded.<\/p>\n

\n

Timeline of events<\/h4>\n

7:04 a.m. March 6: San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office receives a report of shots fired at a neighbor\u2019s home.8:07 a.m.: Deputies arrive; the suspect refuses to exit the residence. Midday: The suspect shoots one drone, causing about $300 in damage.9 p.m.: State police deploy a camera-equipped robot; the suspect fires multiple shots at it.11:45 p.m.: After nearly 15 hours, the suspect exits the home, refuses commands and is Tased and arrested. Post-arrest: Authorities find 20 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition inside the home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Authorities deployed two drones to assess the property. Schoeller shot one of them, causing about $300 in damage, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n

Negotiations continued for more than 12 hours. At 9 p.m., New Mexico State Police sent in a camera-equipped robot to confirm Schoeller was armed. He fired multiple shots at the robot, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

At 11:45 p.m., more than 2 hours and 45 minutes later, Schoeller exited the home, refused commands and was tased by state police, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n

Schoeller is charged with a fourth-degree felony count of shooting at a dwelling; a misdemeanor count of resisting an officer; two petty misdemeanor counts of negligent use of a firearm; and a petty misdemeanor count of criminal damage to property.<\/p>\n

He is being held at the San Juan County Detention Center pending a pretrial detention hearing, which has not been scheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suspect allegedly shot at police drone and robot before being taken into custody<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5755,5735],"tags":[1240,168,1820,28,52,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-128447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-mexico","category-news","tag-aztec","tag-crime","tag-dh-trueanthem","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128447"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=128447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}