Police Blotter: Woman arrested for battery on police officer

A verbal argument turned physical early Saturday morning ending with Gallup police arresting the girlfriend of a Gallup police officer for aiming his service rifle at him and holding him on a bed.

Robin Ashley Thompson, no age given, was booked on battery on a household member charges.

Gallup police were dispatched to the home of patrolman Justin Banally about 2 a.m. after Benally called a fellow worker to make a complaint.

He told officers who responded to the call that he and his girlfriend, Thompson, had been at Fire Rock Navajo Casino earlier in the evening drinking and on their return had started arguing.

During the argument, he said Thompson had pointed his service AR long rifle at him for about two seconds, after which they had gone to the bedroom where she had held him down on the bed with his wrists above his head.

He said she had prevented him from making a call for help by pushing his cell phone away from him.

Police said there were other witnesses in the house at the time but while they all heard the two arguing, none of them saw anything physical since this reportedly happened outside their presence.

Thompson told police that nothing physical happened. She said that the two got into an argument and she just wanted it to end so she could get some sleep.

She said it was while they were arguing that one of the other women got between them to “resolve the issue” and another woman came up and tried to get the first woman away from them.

She said when that happened she went into one of the bedrooms and stayed there until police arrived.

After hearing from everyone, police decided that Thompson was the primary aggressor and transported her to the McKinley County Adult Detention Center to be booked.

Benally, a four year veteran with the department, was one of four Gallup police officers who were involved in a shooting on July 24, 2016, where Alvin Sylversmythe was shot by police officers in a neighborhood near downtown Gallup after he threatened residents of the area with knives.

All four police officers were later cleared of any wrongdoing in the incident.

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