On a Monday evening in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a dispute between two men escalated into a fatal encounter at the intersection of Saint Michaels Drive and Cerrillos Road. Christopher Vigil, a 40-year-old Hispanic male, was driving his gold Chevy Blazer westbound on Saint Michaels Drive at around 5:00 p.m. on March 7, 2022. Traveling in the same direction was 31-year-old Karl Rougemont, operating a black Dodge Charger.
For reasons that remain under investigation, both men stopped their vehicles, exited, and engaged in a physical altercation in the street.
The confrontation took a deadly turn when Rougemont produced a firearm and shot Vigil at least once. Santa Fe County deputies quickly arrived on the scene and detained Rougemont, while State Police officers administered medical aid to Vigil until paramedics arrived. Vigil was then transported by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased by the Office of the Medical Investigator. An autopsy later revealed that the cause of death was five gunshot wounds to the abdomen.
The investigation that followed revealed that Vigil and Rougemont were coworkers at the City of Santa Fe. Vigil was a meter reader, and Rougemont worked in the collections division of the city's utility department. According to the president of the city's employee union, there had been documented complaints between the two men for more than a year, and there had even been discussions about transferring Vigil to a different department to separate them.
Karl Rougemont was arrested and booked into the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Center. He was charged with an open count of Murder in the First Degree, as well as negligent use of a deadly weapon and unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon. Subsequently, Rougemont was released on house arrest to his parents' home, where he was required to wear a location-monitoring ankle bracelet while awaiting trial. The New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau is continuing to investigate the sequence of events that led to the shooting.
