Who Is Nehemiah?

Nehemiah Griego

He was annoyed with his mother, and so with violent thoughts swirling in his mind, 15-year-old Nehemiah Griego retrieved a .22 caliber rifle from his parents’ closet and systematically started killing his family.

That’s according to documents released Monday by law enforcement, which provide new details but few clues as to why a pastor’s son may have committed such a heinous crime.

Nehemiah Griego told police he had been having anger issues and homicidal and suicidal thoughts.

The teen told police “he lost his sense of conscience” after shooting his mother and 9-year-old brother, who lay sleeping beside her in bed.

That’s when he heard his young sisters crying in their bedroom, entered and shot both of them, according to police. And when his father arrived home five hours later, he shot him with an assault rifle, according to the statement of probable cause.

But friends and Calvary church members where Griego’s father, Greg, formerly worked said Nehemiah was a well-behaved kid who liked to wear camouflage clothes.

The teen had no prior involvement with the juvenile justice system, according to a spokesman for the Children, Youth and Families Department.

The family faithfully went to church, even after Greg Griego was no longer working there as a pastor, church members said.

Rick Zemke, who volunteered with Greg Griego as a chaplain and also attended Calvary, described Nehemiah as quiet and a talented musician.

Zemke said when he saw the Griegos at Calvary church, “it seemed like everyone was well-disciplined,” but he never noticed anything he would consider “harsh.”

“He was actually a really good kid,” said William Stuckman, who works on maintenance at Calvary church. “He just liked wearing the camouflage stuff. But at church, he was just a quiet kind of guy. I don’t think anyone would really consider anything in that family going wrong.”

Stuckman said he talked to Nehemiah the night after the shootings.

According to the probable cause document, the teen had gone to the church earlier in the day. Griego told police he wanted to drive to a populated area, shoot people at random and be killed while exchanging gunfire, but instead sent a picture of his deceased mother to his girlfriend.

He then met his girlfriend at the church, where he told her his family had died in a car crash. The girlfriend’s grandmother was also at the church and began asking questions.

In an interview with the Journal, Stuckman said he was getting off work around 8:30 p.m. Saturday when he saw Nehemiah Griego.

He said, “How’s it going?” and shook the teen’s hand.

Griego seemed “kind of strange,” Stuckman said.

“I just knew there was something up with the kid that night because I saw him talking to a few people, and he just seemed kind of weird,” he said. “You could tell from the expressions that something was troubling him or whatever.”

— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal