Albuquerque police have obtained an arrest warrant for the man suspected of fatally shooting a University of New Mexico baseball player at point blank range in front of a popular Nob Hill club last weekend.
Darian Bashir, 23, faces an open count of murder in the slaying of 23-year-old Jackson Weller outside Imbibe Nob Hill early Saturday morning. He is still on the loose.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed today in Metropolitan Court, officers responded to a shooting at Central and Richmond NE, around 2:15 a.m. Saturday and found Weller lying in the street. He had been shot once in the chest and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Police say video surveillance showed a man, later identified as Bashir, walk up to Weller, pull a gun from his waist and shoot him. Bashir is then seen getting into a vehicle which speeds away through the back alley of Imbibe Nob Hill.
Friends of Weller’s who were with him told detectives he had been in a fistfight with several people before the shooting, however Bashir was not one of them. Police say three witnesses were able to identify Bashir as the man who shot Weller.
One witness told police he heard a single gunshot and saw Bashir walking away holding a gun. Two other witnesses say they saw Bashir shoot Weller and walk away as Weller collapsed to the ground.
It is unclear if Bashir was driving the getaway vehicle, and police have not said whether they are seeking anyone else in connection to Weller’s slaying. Police say detectives found “homemade” Youtube videos and photos online of Bashir and others, who appear to be “young teens,” flashing guns.
Court records show Bashir has had a few run-ins with Albuquerque police over the past several years, including a case, that was later dismissed, in which police say he shot a man in the stomach in Downtown Albuquerque. In a more recent incident, Bashir is accused of firing weapons from a vehicle with two other men in southeast Albuquerque.
In November 2017 Bashir was charged with aggravated battery resulting in great bodily harm after allegedly shooting and injuring a young man who tried to talk to some women near Third and Central. The case was dismissed in Jan. 2018 after prosecutors failed to comply with hearing deadlines, including not arranging witness interviews. The case was refiled in February and Bashir was indicted April 9.
On Feb. 13 of this year Bashir was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon , shooting at or from a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence after police say officers responding to gunfire in southeast Albuquerque found Bashir and two other men in a sedan with rifles and handguns. The three told police they had been in a gunfight with another vehicle over “gang beef” but officers never found the other vehicle.
Court records show that prosecutors asked Bashir be held until trial in that case but a district court judge denied the request, noting that Bashir had a “minimal criminal history” and “no felony convictions.”
“He was charged with a violent felony in 2017 but the charges were dismissed,” the judge said in denying the motion to keep Bashir behind bars.
The judge found that, while Bashir posed a safety risk to the community, that risk could “be reasonably addressed with appropriate conditions of release.”
Journal Staff Writer Elise Kaplan contributed to this report.
