Front Page  news  metro

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Around the Metro Area


Journal Staff Reports
       Store Robber Dressed as Guard
    The rash of suspects pretending to be authority figures continued as a man robbed an Albuquerque shoe store Monday while dressed as a security guard, according to police.
    The man, armed with a handgun, walked into the Payless Shoesource at 2839 Carlisle at about 3 p.m. and made off with an undisclosed amount of money from the register, Albuquerque Police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said.
    Witnesses said he wore a security guard's uniform and a gold badge, Hamby said.
    No one was injured, she said.
    Police are looking for a man in his 20s weighing about 150 pounds in connection with the robbery.
    The incident is the fourth in recent months in which suspects have pretended to be in positions of authority.
    In June, a man in his 20s robbed a McDonald's on Wyoming while dressed as a bicycle cop.
    Weeks later, three men wearing shirts that read "police" broke into a South Valley home while a family slept. Police arrested three men Monday in connection with the incident. And on Wednesday, a man walked into a Family Dollar on San Pedro NE, flashed a fake police badge, pulled a gun on the cashier and left with the money in the register, according to an incident report.
    Deaths Apparent Murder-Suicide
    Valencia County Sheriff's deputies are investigating an apparent murder-suicide that left two dead.
    A man called 911 around noon Monday, saying he had shot his girlfriend and was going to shoot himself, deputy Ed Chavez said.
    When deputies arrived at the Las Maravillas home where the call originated, the door was open and a man and woman lay on the floor, both dead from gunshot wounds, Chavez said.
    Sheriff Rene Rivera said a gun was found next to the body of the dead man.
    Deputies did not release the couple's names.
    Neighbors said the couple had recently moved to Las Maravillas, a neighborhood east of Los Lunas, and mostly kept to themselves, Chavez said.
    Planned Parenthood Vandalized
    Rio Rancho's Planned Parenthood was the target of vandalism again this weekend after someone fired a gun at the clinic's window.
    Sandoval County Regional dispatch was alerted to an audible alarm at the clinic on Ridgecrest Drive about 11:45 p.m. Saturday, according to a dispatch log. The clinic's alarm company said the alarm was triggered by the clinic's front glass window being broken.
    When police arrived, they found the clinic secure, but discovered a bullet hole in the front window about 6 feet off the ground, Rio Rancho police Lt. Noel Adams said.
    In May, the clinic was also shot at with a bullet or other high-velocity projectile. Messages such as "Pro-Choice = Murder" and "Baby Killers" had been spray-painted onto the windows. No one has been arrested.