Tomé man arrested after SWAT situation for robbery, assault

TOME — Two Valencia County men are in custody after unrelated incidents in Tomé Tuesday afternoon shut down N.M. 47 for several hours.

Procopio Montoya, 21, of Tomé, is charged with armed robbery involving a firearm, aggravated assault with a firearm and aggravated battery with a possible blunt object.

Valencia County Undersheriff Mark Kmatz said officers were called to a home on Yerba Road Tuesday afternoon after a man walked into the Tomé-Adelino Fire Station to report a robbery and assault.

Witnesses reported hearing a gunshot during the altercation between Montoya and the victim, so contact with Montoya was treated as a high-risk warrant service, Kmatz said.

The Los Lunas and VCSO SWAT officers deployed to talk Montoya out of the home. When that was unsuccessful, officers entered the home but it was empty.

Kmatz said they were told Montoya was in a home nearby and, with the consent of the residents, entered that home and found Montoya hiding in a closet.

Montoya was wanted on three other warrants at the time of his arrest.

In a peripheral incident, while SWAT had the home on Yerba surrounded, a man matching Montoya’s description was seen in a field to the south who took off running west to the Tomé Drain.

Kmatz said the man got into a silver car on the ditchbank, which then headed south. Valencia County Sheriff Denise Vigil was the closest unit and pursued the car.

It finally stopped on Oakhurst in the Hilltop Estates. The man fled on foot but was not located.

The driver of the car was George Bond, 29, of Los Lunas, who was wanted on a no-hold probation violation warrant.

Bond was taken into custody and also booked into VCDC. Kmatz said there was a female passenger in the car who was not arrested.

“Both she and Bond said they didn’t know the man, and were just ‘helping out a homie on the ditch,’” the undersheriff said.