Patrol officers secured the area and called for the SWAT team to respond. Negotiators’ attempts to contact Joseph Rino weren’t successful. Officers obtained a search warrant for the house, then The SWAT team and K9s entered the house and arrested Rino without incident.
From Farmington Police
Thursday, January 8, 2020
Farmington police have a man in custody after a brief SWAT standoff yesterday.
Officers were dispatched around 1:50 p.m. to a residence in the 800 block of East 24th Street regarding a man wanted on felony warrants. Officers arrived and could hear a man and woman fighting inside the home. The woman came out to talk to officers and confirmed that the wanted man, 28-year-old Joseph Rino, was still inside the house.
Patrol officers secured the area and called for the SWAT team to respond. Negotiators’ attempts to contact Rino weren’t successful. Officers obtained a search warrant for the house, then The SWAT team and K9s entered the house and arrested Rino without incident.
Rino was served on the warrants for Aggravated Battery Against a Household Member, False Imprisonment, and Battery Against a Household Member. He was also charged with Resisting, Evading, or Obstructing an officer.
For 15 years, Lauren Laws has dedicated her career to Aztec Schools, beginning as a Special Education teacher in 2008. In 2010 she transitioned to General Education, where she spent six years in the classroom working with 4th and 5th graders at Park Avenue Elementary while completing work on her Master's Degree. During her tenure at Park Avenue Elementary, she also served a Lead Teacher, Assistant Principal, and Principal. Lauren has spent the past three years serving as the Associate Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the district.
Brice Current was a former narcotics agent with the San Juan County Sheriff's Office in Aztec, NM. He was hired as Durango's Deputy Police Chief in 2019.
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The name of the deceased is not yet released.
The FMS Board of Education authorized school security personnel to carry firearms on school premises during their January 9, 2024, meeting. The move paved the way for the hiring of Armed Campus Safety Monitors (ACSMs), former certified law enforcement officers tasked with providing an additional layer of protection for students and staff during emergencies.
Farmington Officials gathered with representatives from the NM Department of Transportation and San Juan County to break ground on the long-anticipated Pinon Hills Boulevard Extension Project. San Juan County announced that design work on their section of the project is 90% completed.
Kevin Summers will be returning to the Bloomfield School District as Superintendent, after the retirement of Dr. Kim Mizell at the end of the current school year. Summers' hire makes an opening in the Superintendent's Office in Aztec where he has served for the past three years.