Police: New Mexico deputy shoots fellow deputy

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - A northern New Mexico sheriff's deputy shot and killed a fellow deputy at a hotel Tuesday after transporting a prisoner to Arizona, authorities said.

The shooting took place just after midnight at the Hotel Encanto in the southern New Mexico city of Las Cruces, police said. It was not immediately known what sparked the shooting.

Officials said the two Santa Fe County deputies had dropped off the prisoner and were heading back to Santa Fe, nearly 300 miles from the hotel.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia told The Associated Press that one deputy was accused in another deputy's death. Garcia said that his department was grieving and that he was at a loss for words.

"I have grief counselors or crisis counselors here now meeting with a lot of my personnel, but it's a grieving law enforcement agency," Garcia said.

He said the victim had been a deputy for 2 ½ years, and the other was on the force for three years.

Garcia and Las Cruces police did not release the names of the deputies.