ActivePaper Archive Suspect arrested in Chili’s shooting - Hobbs News Sun, 1/30/2018

Suspect arrested in Chili’s shooting

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A Hobbs man suspected in Saturday evening’s shooting outside Chili’s Grill and Bar turned himself into the Hobbs Police Department Monday. A west Texas man injured in the shooting is described to be in “critical condition.”

Around 6 p.m. Saturday, some Hobbs restaurant employees and customers became unwitting bystanders of an incident that occurred outside of Chili’s Grill and Bar, 1810 W. Joe Harvey Blvd., where a “large fight” reportedly broke out between two groups of people in the restaurant’s parking lot. Hobbs police responded and news of it spread on social media, while one woman took to a Lea County neighborhood watch page to alert people: “If you’re going to Chili’s, I would wait a little bit. Fight going on outside.”

Once they arrived at the scene, Hobbs police officers learned a man had suffered a gunshot wound. “Multiple people” involved in the fight left the area before police arrived, the department stated. Witnesses reported police taped off the parking lot area.

“The victim was transported to Lea Regional Medical Center by a private vehicle prior to officers’ arrival,” Hobbs police announced Saturday night. “He was later airlifted to a Lubbock area hospital.”

McCall said the 22-year-old victim is from Odessa and remains in critical condition, as of Monday morning. Steven Barnes, 42, was arrested on aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in relation to the shooting, according to McCall. The charge is a third-degree felony.

After the shooting, Hobbs police stated potential witnesses were interviewed and investigators processed the crime scene. Preliminary information indicated only one person was armed with a firearm during the incident.

“We have suspects that we have interviewed,” McCall confirmed Monday.

He said the department shut the immediate parking lot around Chili’s down for “several hours” for the investigation.

“(It’s a) very dangerous situation to be occurring in a location with that kind of crowd in it,” he said. “There was never any immediate threat to them, but just the volatility of the situation definitely put anybody there in danger at the time that was occurring.”

McCall described the restaurant as “very cooperative.” He added that it contracted for officer presence there for the next several weeks.

The News-Sun reached out to the restaurant on Monday for comment, but was directed by an employee to contact a media hotline for Brinker International, Inc., which is a Dallas-based company that owns Chili’s. It did not respond to an email inquiry about the incident as of press time.

The investigation is ongoing. If you have information about Saturday’s incident, contact the Hobbs Police Department at 575-397-9265 or Lea County Crime Stoppers at 575-393-8005.