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Journal photographer faces down 'intense' moment

Man holding gun at Oñate rally — Journal photographer Eddie Moore earned first place for general news photo in the 2024 New Mexico Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest for this image, in which people scramble after Ryan Martinez pulls a gun during a rally outside the Rio Arriba County building in Española on Sept. 28, 2023. The man scrambling at lower left was not the man shot during the protest.

20230928-news-onate-7 — Ryan Martinez, right, touches a shrine made from a pedestal where a statue of Juan de Oñate was to be placed outside a Rio Arriba County building in Española on Thursday. Moore, a veteran Journal photojournalist, had engaged both the accused shooter (Martinez) and the victim in the moments before the shooting.

OLLIE REED JR. OLLIE REED JR. OLLIE REED JR. JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Published September 28, 2023 - 5:32 p.m. Modified November 2, 2024 - 1:00 a.m.

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The gunman stopped shooting, but Albuquerque Journal photographer Eddie Moore didn’t.

As others hit the ground or fled in panic, Moore stood fast, clicking off photos of 23-year-old Ryan Martinez, who had just put a bullet in a man during an Española rally celebrating a decision to delay installation of a statue of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate.

Moore’s photograph of Martinez pointing his pistol at others after the shooting made its way around the world on Thursday and may well become an iconic image of America’s widespread gun violence.

Moore, 60, conceded he could not think of another incident during his more than 36 years as a photojournalist to compare to what happened Thursday.

“We have had rallies go south before, but never had anyone pull out a gun and shoot someone,” he said. “He had shot one man, and he was waving his gun around. That’s pretty intense.

“But I didn’t get scared. I didn’t drop to the ground. I didn’t think he was going to shoot me. I just kept shooting (photos) until there was nothing to shoot.”

Moore has worked for several papers in North Carolina and has been with the Journal for 27 years, two as a freelancer and 25 as a staff photographer.

He said he is accustomed to arriving on the scene just after a shooting. But on Thursday, he was there before violence erupted and had talked to both Martinez and his victim, asking for and writing down their names.

“(Martinez) came back and asked why I got his name,” Moore said. “I told him I was just getting the names of people who might be in a photo I took. He seemed nice. He was polite to me.”

As potentially deadly as Thursday’s incident was, Moore said it did not have the urgency of other things he has covered, such as a fire rushing toward a community and destroying people’s possessions and livelihoods.

“It was just a kind of happened in the moment thing,” he said.

Moore texted his wife, Kim, and his 16-year-old son, Logan, to let them know he was OK.

“But I definitely think I’m going to need a beer in an hour or two,” he said.