By Elizabeth Piazza
The Daily Times
FARMINGTON, N.M. — A Farmington firefighter contracted to clear an overgrown lot in Farmington ran over a man Monday with a forestry mulching machine.
Chasen Kelley was working to clear a densely wooded vacant lot behind Best Buy and Safeway on East Main Street when he ran over Freddie Simpson while Simpson was sleeping under a tree, authorities said.
The machine grinds wood into mulch.
Kelley told Farmington detectives he stopped the machine when he saw clothing debris flying out, and that is when he found the body, Farmington Police Lt. Daryl Noon said.
It remains unclear why Simpson, 59, was in the area.
Foul play is not suspected, but detectives are not yet ruling it out as a possibility, Noon said.
Kelley was contracted to clear the nearly eight acres of woods and brush, which, in addition to posing a fire hazard, also posed a public safety issue to the area because it was the location of makeshift street-inebriate camps.
Robert Bustos, a 47-year-old Farmington man, was beaten to death in the area in July while he was walking home after buying groceries from Safeway, according to court records.
Authorities believed clearing the lot would help rid the area of crime.
The San Juan Soil and Conservation District contracted Kelley, who privately owns the Rocky Mountain Fire Mitigation Service, based in Bayfield, Colo., to clear the lot, Gary Hathorn, project coordinator said in a phone interview.
He received $1,250 for each acre he cleared.
The conservation group was tasked with administering the federal stimulus funds which were awarded to the New Mexico State Forestry Division for hazardous fuel removal and for wildfire protection.
Kelley’s company was one of four different companies that were contracted by the conservation group to clear about 500 acres across the county “identified as high risk areas for wildfires,” Hathorn said.
The Farmington Fire Department identified the location as a problem area for fires, and Farmington police long recognized the public safety issues that existed, he said.
Police, following Monday’s incident, impounded the forest mulching machine as evidence, Hathorn said.
Kelley, because of the traumatic experience, likely will not finish the job, and the conservation division will use a different contractor, Hathorn said.
Detectives continue to investigate, Noon said.
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