Friday, July 25, 2008

Police: 2 Dead in Shooting

By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer
      A man fatally shot his ex-girlfriend, then turned the gun on himself Wednesday night inside the woman's home near Cibola High School, police said.
    Neither the man's nor the woman's name had been released as of late Thursday because authorities had not yet made contact with their families, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said. Both appeared to be in their 30s, she said.
    Police are calling the incident a murder-suicide.
    Investigators were interviewing a male friend of the woman — who insisted he was not romantically involved with her — in an attempt to track down a motive for the shooting, Hamby said. The man had been in the home with the woman before her ex-boyfriend came in with a gun.
    After the shooting, the woman's friend called police to her home at 10727 Pueblo Place NW at 10:23 p.m. Wednesday from a neighbor's mobile telephone, Hamby said. The man told the dispatcher he was not familiar with the area and had trouble describing exactly where in the city he was, she said. Then the call disconnected.
    When police arrived a short time later, Hamby said, they found the woman and the alleged shooter lying inside the home near the back door. Both were pronounced dead at the scene — apparently of gunshot wounds.
    The woman's friend told police he was able to run out of the house while the woman and her ex-boyfriend were arguing, Hamby said. Shortly after getting outside, he heard multiple gunshots.
    He told a police dispatcher that he had just installed new locks on the woman's doors and that the ex-boyfriend had come into the residence through the back door.
    City Animal Services workers kept the woman's dog in the garage while police began to work the crime scene, she said.
    Police were at the Pueblo NW home until after 5 a.m. Thursday, Hamby said, processing the scene for evidence and searching for additional clues and possible witnesses.
    By 9 a.m., the yellow crime-scene tape had been taken down, and few if any neighbors were around the home.
   

---