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Police say five teens beat restaurant workers outside Coronado Center on Thursday afternoon, with two of them pistol-whipping the employees. The teens then shot out the back window of an SUV in the parking lot as they fled the scene, authorities said.
Michael Ross Jr., 18, and a younger teen, Angelo Morales, allegedly pointed guns at the Fuddruckers employees and pistol-whipped them.
Ross is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery in the incident. Rebecca Atkins, an Albuquerque police spokeswoman, said Morales was also arrested, but she did not say what he was charged with. Three other teens were issued criminal summons for battery.
Atkins said there were people inside the SUV when the teens shot out the window, but nobody was struck by gunfire.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:
Police responded around 3:45 p.m. to the burger joint after a 911 caller reported a group of teens had attacked employees and then shot out an SUV’s window. A Fuddruckers employee told police the group came in trying to get change and when he refused – because it was against store policy – they began yelling.
The employee said he escorted the teens outside, and they began punching him and another employee before two teens, later identified as Ross and Morales, pulled out guns. The employee told police the pair pointed the guns at him and then pistol-whipped both employees before taking off toward Target.
Atkins said police found the teens at the Target and seized two guns, one from Ross and the other thrown into a vehicle by Morales in the Target parking lot. Morales’ girlfriend, another teen, told police the Fuddruckers employee was “rude to her,” so she and her friends attacked him.