Questions raised on how Santa Fe police officer's son died; guns, ammo seized from home

Dec. 15—Rio Rancho police received the call around 8:30 a.m. Dec. 8: A frantic Courtney Harmon said her 2-year-old son "fell off a chair" and there was "blood everywhere," according to a search warrant affidavit.

The document, filed in the 13th Judicial District Court, is the first publicly available record on what police say was the fatal shooting of the young son of a Santa Fe police officer. The Rio Rancho and Santa Fe police departments have provided little information about the incident and have declined to identify the slain toddler or the officer.

The affidavit names the boy as Lincoln Harmon and his father as Officer Jonathan Harmon, 28.

While it provides some new details, the document perhaps raises more questions than it answers about how Lincoln died that morning.

As the couple waited for first responders to arrive, Jonathan Harmon told dispatchers he was performing CPR to try to revive his son, the affidavit said, adding his wife could be heard in the background, distraught and crying, begging for her child to breathe.

The Santa Fe officer said he did not see his son lose consciousness. The boy was bleeding heavily from his mouth and teeth were missing, he told dispatchers.

When police arrived at the home on Sandoval Drive in the Enchanted Hills area of Rio Rancho, they found a spent shell casing and "projectile" on the kitchen floor next to the child. An empty gun holster was lying on a table. An investigator asked the couple if there were guns in the home, the affidavit said, and Courtney Harmon told her, "The gun was placed in a kitchen cabinet."

The search warrant was for DNA evidence, bodily fluids, firearms, ammunition and any other items in the home deemed necessary for the investigation.

Investigators executing it later that evening seized two AR-15 rifles, two Glock handguns, a holster, a magazine, numerous rounds of 9mm ammunition, a tooth, and blood samples from the kitchen and master bedroom, the document said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Jessica Martinez said a search warrant doesn't necessarily indicate the family did not consent to a police search of their home, as it's often customary for officers to request a warrant prior to a search.

"A warrant is just to ensure that they don't violate anybody's right to privacy," said Martinez, a prosecutor with the 13th Judicial District Attorney's Office. "It doesn't necessarily mean that the charges are gonna come out of that or not. It could or it couldn't, but it doesn't indicate either way."

The Rio Rancho Police Department has not said whether it expects to file charges in Lincoln's death.

Social media profiles for Jonathan and Courtney Harmon show the couple in multiple photos with Lincoln and two other children, including an infant.

Officials with the state Children, Youth and Families Department have not responded to inquiries on whether the agency was involved in the response to Lincoln's death or had taken any of the family's children into custody.

Rio Rancho police Capt. Joel Holt, a spokesman for the agency, declined to say whether other children were in the Harmon home at the time of the shooting that killed Lincoln or why the department has not publicly confirmed the identities of the slain child and other family members.

"I will look into these questions for further release, but at this time we have released all the information that we can," he wrote in an email.

Santa Fe police interim Chief Paul Joye declined to comment on Lincoln's death and Jonathan Harmon's status at the police department.

He said he was aware of the search warrant and would continue to defer to Rio Rancho police when it comes to releasing information on the progress of the investigation.

A GoFundMe campaign has been initiated to raise funds for Lincoln's celebration of life. "On the 8th of December the Harmon Family was struck by an unexpected tragedy with the passing of Lincoln Harmon," a post on the page said.

By Tuesday evening, it had collected over $24,000, far more than its goal of $8,000. Among the donors were members of the Santa Fe Police Department, including Capt. Matthew Champlin and Lt. Thomas Grundler.