APD charges man with murder in fatal shooting of ex-girlfriend

A 20-year-old man is accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend in the face last month in the Northeast Heights.

Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office SWAT officers arrested Alexander Ortiz on Wednesday after a brief standoff in Southeast Albuquerque, said Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos.

Ortiz is charged with an open count of murder. He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unknown if he has an attorney.

About 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 11, APD responded to a homicide call in the 4040 block of Montgomery NE. The caller told police a woman — later identified as Alianna Farfan — had been shot and someone had left from the apartment window, according to a criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court.

The complaint states that after arriving, police found a woman dead.

According to the complaint, the victim’s mother told police her daughter had been dating a man — later identified as Ortiz — who she said had beat her on Christmas Eve. Farfan’s mother and grandmother told police that Farfan told her father that Ortiz had pointed a gun at her. The father then arrived and told Ortiz to leave, which he did.

On Jan. 11, neighbors told police they heard Farfan running and yelling for help, saying Ortiz threatened to choke her. The next day, police listened to a 911 call recording in which a woman called for help saying, “He killed her,” the complaint states.

On Jan. 20, the complaint states, Ortiz’s grandfather told police, “I know that Alexander’s the one who shot her.” When asked how he knew this, the man told police he said he heard this from other people who were at the apartment: Ortiz, Farfan, a neighbor’s ex-boyfriend and their girlfriend.

According to the complaint, the grandfather also told police he heard Farfan and Ortiz arguing before a gun went off and Ortiz jumped out of a bedroom window.

A woman then told police she had been in the apartment the night of the homicide. She told police Ortiz had been “hostile” before calling Farfan into the bedroom and shutting the door, the complaint states.

According to the complaint, the woman then told police she heard a gunshot. After Ortiz fled, they kicked down the door and saw Farfan had been shot in the face.