APD: Officers shoot woman wielding knife in Northeast Albuquerque

Police fatally shot a woman who was allegedly wielding a knife Tuesday morning near an apartment complex in Northeast Albuquerque.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said the shooting happened around 9:30 a.m. at the Los Altos Lofts on Eubank, north of Interstate 40.

The woman — believed to be a resident of the affordable housing complex — was taken to a hospital, where she died.

During a briefing, APD Deputy Chief Cecily Barker said that around 2:30 a.m. a 911 call came in about a woman causing a disturbance and knocking on doors of the Los Altos Lofts.

The woman told witnesses she had been poisoned, but officers were not able to find her, Barker said. Two hours later, police responded to the area a second time after a 911 call about a second disturbance involving a group of people. She said officers were not able to locate the group.

Then, around 7:50 a.m., officers responded a third time to reports that a naked woman was wielding two knives and telling witnesses she “wanted to be shot,” Barker said. The woman came out of an apartment holding a knife as officers spoke with the apartment’s management.

”She began to run toward the officer,” Barker said. “He advised her not to come closer, and at least one shot was fired.”

Barker said the woman, who APD did not identify, had been taken to a hospital last Friday for mental health issues. “There have been at least two incidents where that has happened,” she said.

Police believe the woman was a resident of the Los Altos Lofts, Barker said.

Mayor Tim Keller was scheduled to hold a news conference about affordable housing at that location the same day before it was canceled due to the shooting. The Los Altos Lofts are home to 90 affordable housing units and have “maintained full occupancy since opening,” according to a news release from city of Albuquerque spokesperson Connor Woods.

The apartments are the city’s first motel-to-affordable-housing conversion, Woods said.