{"id":138219,"date":"2026-07-08T21:11:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T03:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/detention-officer-reportedly-causes-courthouse-lock-down-in-aztec\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:11:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T03:11:52","slug":"detention-officer-reportedly-causes-courthouse-lock-down-in-aztec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/detention-officer-reportedly-causes-courthouse-lock-down-in-aztec\/","title":{"rendered":"Detention officer reportedly causes courthouse lock down in Aztec"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Eleventh Judicial District Court in Aztec.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A San Juan County Detention Center officer reportedly caused a nearly three-hour lock down this week at the 11th Judicial District Courthouse after a domestic violence hearing.<\/p>\n

William Johnston, 56, of Aztec, was in court July 7, arguing against a restraining order request filed by his former girlfriend, according to court records.<\/p>\n

The request for the restraining order stated that Johnston had been \u201csuicidal\u201d and was in possession of \u201cmultiple pistols and long guns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hearing heard by District Judge Brad Dalley began at 11:25 a.m. and ended at 11:50 a.m., with Dalley issuing a 20-year restraining order and instructing Johnston to undergo counseling.<\/p>\n

After the hearing, Johnston reportedly wrote a note saying, \u201cWill always love you,\u201d and left it on his former girlfriend\u2019s vehicle. He also allegedly sent her a message through social media, which was a violation of the restraining order.<\/p>\n

About 30-minutes later at 12:22 p.m., the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office was called to the courthouse in Aztec in response to Johnston being in his vehicle with a gun, according to an affidavit for arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

Johnston reportedly told deputies that he saw his former girlfriend walking outside of court with a deputy and \u201cthat was when he grabbed his handgun to shoot himself,\u201d the affidavit said.<\/p>\n

\n

For help<\/h4>\n

If you are someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, the New Mexico Crisis hotline at 988 is a 24-hour, seven-days a week lifeline for emotional, mental, alcohol and substance abuse support. It is free and private and available by calling or texting 988.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When his vehicle was surrounded by law enforcement, Johnston reportedly called his former girlfriend multiple times, using his cellphone, which was another violation of the restraining order.<\/p>\n

Johnston remained in his vehicle with the gun, causing law enforcement to not only close the courthouse, but also the nearby San Juan County administrative offices.<\/p>\n

All traffic on NM 516 was redirected beginning at 12:52 p.m., and the highway remained closed until Johnston was peacefully taken into custody at 2:39 p.m.<\/p>\n

No gunshots were fired and no one was injured in the standoff, according to San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari, who said Johnston was being charged with a misdemeanor violation of a restraining order.<\/p>\n

An arrest warrant for Johnston was filed July 8 in San Juan County Magistrate Court.<\/p>\n

The Tri-City Record contacted San Juan County to request Johnston\u2019s employment status and County Public Relations Manager Devin Neeley said, \u201chis employment ends today.\u201d<\/p>\n

dmayeux@tricityrecordnm.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Johnston distressed by issuance of restraining order<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5755,5735],"tags":[1240,168,3665,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-138219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-mexico","category-news","tag-aztec","tag-crime","tag-eleventh-district-court","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138219"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=138219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}