Gunshot victim recounts fighting at party

PORTALES - Shot and bleeding, Quintin Carmichael crawled outside Derek Garcia's house toward the front lawn where his friend since childhood lay dying.

Carmichael didn't immediately realize the extent of Garcia's injuries, and he had barely realized himself that he had been shot in the leg.

Inside the house, he saw another young man clutching his face and bleeding from a stab wound.

That was around 2 a.m. Saturday. The evening had started out good-naturedly just a few hours earlier.

"I showed up around 10:30, 11 p.m., a couple of friends, not very many at first. Everyone was having fun, drinking," said Carmichael, 20.

He said he did not recognize the strangers who arrived at the party, nor could he say exactly what brought Garcia and one of the unidentified newcomers to start fighting in the front yard.

A video of the initial sparring shows two men exchanging punches on the front lawn of Garcia's residence at 510 E. 18th St., and as the fight intensifies people start to raise their voices.

Showing the cell phone video to The News on Monday, Carmichael pointed out what he said was the sound of a gun cocking off-screen.

"I know a lot of people when the gun was first pulled, they ran," Carmichael said.

Not everybody ran. The person previously grappling with Garcia - a white man in his 30s, Carmichael said - decided he wanted to fight one of Garcia's brothers in attendance.

"For some reason, the guy got up, said 'Your brother can fight, let's see if you can fight,'" Carmichael said.

It continued to escalate, and Carmichael was unclear precisely how things played out in the chaotic minutes ensuing.

Nino Darienzo, 22, became embroiled in an argument with several men at once, Carmichael said.

"I seen them getting in his face, and then I seen all of them start hitting him," he continued. "After they jumped in, I was right by him, and then someone started hitting me. ... I'm not sure if Nino got stabbed right then when they were jumping him or not."

Carmichael heard gunshots - he said two, while some neighbors later reported hearing three or four around 2:20 a.m.

It took Carmichael a moment to realize he was shot.

"Basically I was running towards the front of the house, then my leg gave out and I started hopping," he said. Inside the house, two people "were trying to help me stop the bleeding" while another person wrapped his leg in a shirt.

"Nino was in the house, I believe, at that time. he was holding his face, he had a big lash on his lip," Carmichael said. "After that everyone was screaming and calling the cops. Everyone left me inside and I was holding my leg."

Carmichael said this was his second time being shot; the first was a year or two prior when a passenger in his car mishandled a .22 and fired into his left thigh.

"She shot but it went through my Monster (energy drink) can, so it slowed it down," Carmichael said. "But it was nowhere near as bad as this one."

Carmichael on Saturday sustained a gunshot through his lower left leg, chipping his front shin, traversing his calf at an angle and exiting from the back.

"I got very lucky, compared to the rest of them, considering I was shot in the leg and nowhere else," he said. "They said if it was another inch or so it would have shattered (his shin) and I would have had to have a rod and surgery."

Carmichael said he wasn't too concerned about his leg at the time - "it was basically just throbbing" - and he felt confident that Darienzo would at least be alright, since "he was standing and aware."

As for Garcia, whom Carmichael has known since they were fifth-graders in Portales, he had a bad feeling from the first.

"When they were carrying me to the ambulance, it was definitely something else," he added. Carmichael said he shouted to one of Garcia's younger brothers, asking after his friend's condition.

"He wouldn't say anything, but you could tell by the look on his face," Carmichael said. "I kind of had the feeling..."

Garcia, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene from a single gunshot to the chest. Records show Devin Guidry, 22, "admitted to shooting and killing" Garcia but "claimed he acted in self-defense after Derek attacked him with a knife."

Guidry is cooperating with investigators, Roosevelt County Sheriff Malin Parker said Sunday, and nobody had been charged or arrested as of Tuesday in connection with the incident.

Carmichael was released from the hospital Saturday with a boot on his left leg and a forecasted recovery period of six to eight weeks.

The investigation into the fight is ongoing and criminal charges could still be brought, Parker said Tuesday.

Cannon Air Force Base's media representative said Tuesday that Senior Airman Darienzo arrived at the base early in 2017 and that the Office of Special Investigations is assisting Parker's office in the investigation. Parker said Darienzo is expected to recover.

Carmichael is still trying to process what happened Saturday.

"The fighting was nonstop," he said. "It doesn't seem real, I think, to a lot of people. It's hard to accept. ... It's just going to be a process of getting back to normal."