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On April 1, authorities began investigating allegations that Bradley Wallin had been sexually abusing the daughter of his longtime girlfriend for over a decade.
Then, a second victim came forward to report similar abuse, and then a third.
On Sunday, police say, the 52-year-old fatally shot the teenage daughter and her cousin before turning the gun on himself in a West Side parking lot.
Deputy Ramon Martinez of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said the criminal case against Wallin “was developing” when the Mother’s Day shooting occurred, leaving Alexia Rael, 17, and Mario Salgado-Rosales, 16, dead in the parking lot of Party City near Cottonwood Mall.
He said the investigators on the case are “saddened by this tragic and senseless murder.”
Court records show Rael’s mother had filed for an order of protection against Wallin on April 4, alleging he threatened her daughter. Albuquerque police are investigating the murder-suicide and believe he targeted the teen for exposing his alleged crimes.
Police responded around 12:30 p.m. to the Party City when a 911 caller reported a man had shot himself in the parking lot. Arriving officers found all three dead.
Investigators said the cousins were buying party favors for a Mother’s Day event before the shooting, but could not say how Wallin found them there.
Martinez said Wallin, who listed himself as a bank manager on LinkedIn, first appeared on the agency’s radar a month earlier.
He said deputies responded on April 1 after the teen told her mother, who was in an “intimate relationship” with Wallin, that he had been sexually abusing her. Martinez said the alleged abuse stretched back over 10 years.
He said BCSO helped the pair get an emergency protection order against Wallin, “which remained in place pending the criminal investigation.”
“The early stages of this investigation included an attempt to locate surveillance footage of the suspect, interviewing witnesses and identifying additional victims,” Martinez said.
He said deputies found a second victim who “disclosed similar abuse as a minor” and a third victim who agreed to speak with deputies, but then never “came forward to meet.”
Martinez said deputies interviewed Rael and a medical exam was scheduled, but had not been completed when they were alerted to the murder-suicide.
He said BCSO’s Special Victims Unit was rocked by the deaths.
“These detectives work tirelessly to bring justice to the most vulnerable,” he said. “This horrific act weighs heavy on the hearts of our detectives and deputies.”
