LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Court documents say a New Mexico sheriff’s deputy accused of killing a fellow deputy was talking to his girlfriend on the phone just before the shooting and the woman heard someone’s pleas before gunfire rang out. Records released Wednesday say the girlfriend of Santa Fe County Deputy Tai Chan heard someone say, “Please don’t, please don't.” She told investigators she then heard gunshots.
Chan was scheduled to make his first court appearance via video Wednesday afternoon. He’s facing an open count of murder and is being held without bond at a jail in the southern New Mexico city of Las Cruces. Police say the shooting occurred in a hotel early Tuesday after Chan and fellow Deputy Jeremy Martin drank at a nightspot and got into a heated argument. They were staying there after dropping off a prisoner in Arizona. Police didn’t immediately say what led to the men’s argument.