'Worst of our fears': Details emerge in teen's fatal shooting outside Atrisco Heritage High

Three teenage boys walked to the Atrisco Heritage Academy parking lot on Friday night after watching a basketball game at the high school. There, they gathered with other teenagers — smoking weed and hanging out.

Then, according to deputies, two 16-year-olds pulled out guns and began playing with them. One teen “began messing with” the laser sight on his gun and it went off, striking the other teen and killing him.

At a news conference 15 hours later, Atrisco Heritage Principal Irene Cisneros fought back tears, calling the incident “our worst nightmare.”

Adrian Martinez, 16, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in the death of Elijah Pohl-Morfin, also 16.

Martinez allegedly told other teens to lie about the shooting and bury the guns involved. He also left a blood-soaked sweater in a restaurant before being detained by deputies.

Martinez’s family declined to comment to the Journal.

Officials with Albuquerque Public Schools said both boys were in 11th grade at the southwest-area high school and played on the football team together.

Principal Cisneros said the family of Pohl-Morfin was “devastated.”

In a letter sent to parents Saturday, Cisneros said the school would have an increased police presence on Monday and be offering counseling services to students and staff “grappling with the emotional impact of this incident.”

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and APS officials did not say where the guns came from or if the teens had any disciplinary history related to guns.

A teen who witnessed the shooting told BCSO detectives that Martinez “had multiple firearms” but he didn’t know where he got them, according to court records. The teen said Martinez had sold Pohl-Morfin a gun a few months earlier and both boys were known to carry firearms.

The incident marked the second time guns had been reported at Atrisco Heritage this school year and the sixth time on APS school property.

The shooting was also the third time an APS student had been fatally shot on or near school grounds since August 2021.

At a news conference Saturday afternoon, APS Superintendent Scott Elder said “it’s incredibly frustrating” to have the same discussion over and over.

“I really feel like we’re making every effort to get into the kids’ heads and to help them understand. But here’s the thing, they’re kids,” he said. “And we know that despite our best efforts, both as parents and as educators, kids sometimes make bad decisions.”

Elder urged parents to keep their guns secured and talk to their kids about staying away from firearms.

“And really, if you’ve been avoiding this conversation, wow, that has got to stop. This conversation has to happen,” he said. “And quite frankly, I believe it is happening, but once isn’t enough. We’ve just got to keep coming back and back and back until we get into kids heads that this is just not safe.”

BCSO spokeswoman Jayme Fuller said Albuquerque Public Schools police handed off the investigation into Friday’s shooting “due to the nature of the event and its tragic outcome.”

“Our investigators are actively working to understand the full scope of this incident,” Fuller said.

‘Playing with their guns’

Deputies responded around 9:45 p.m. to the shooting at the high school, located on Dennis Chavez SW, just west of 98th, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Children’s Court. Pohl-Morfin had been driven to Presbyterian Hospital by Martinez and another teen before being pronounced dead.

Deputies said Martinez fled the hospital on foot but was detained by Albuquerque police officers at the 66 Diner, across Central near the hospital. Inside the diner, Martinez had left a blood-soaked sweater.

The teen who drove to the hospital told deputies the boys had gone to the basketball game at Atrisco Heritage, according to the affidavit. The teen said afterward, they went out to Pohl-Morfin’s car in the parking lot, where the two boys were “playing with their guns.”

Deputies said the teen told them Martinez shot Pohl-Morfin with a handgun that had a blue laser sight attached before loading him into the car. The teen said Martinez told him to “lie to law enforcement and say that they were at a car meet when someone started shooting.”

The mother of another teen called 911 after her son told her about the shooting and said Martinez had given him the guns, according to the affidavit. The teen told deputies they were smoking cannabis and Martinez was “messing with the laser beam” before the gun went off.

Deputies said the teen told them Martinez handed him two guns and told him “to get rid of them.” The teen said Martinez later called and told him to “bury the guns” and that “nothing happened.”

Deputies said the teen’s mother recorded the calls from Martinez.

After being detained, Martinez elected to have his mother sit in with detectives for an interview, according to the affidavit. Martinez’s mother arrived and decided he would not give a statement without an attorney present.

Fuller, the BCSO spokeswoman, said “as a direct consequence of this ongoing investigation, all basketball games scheduled (Saturday) at Atrisco Heritage High School have been canceled. Additional information will be provided as it becomes available.”

Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman, who discussed juvenile gunplay at a luncheon on Friday, said young people’s access to firearms is “out of control.”

“We’re going to really focus on trying to figure out what’s going on to make guns so accessible to young people,” he said. “And it’s unacceptable. We all know young people make bad decisions, but when you insert firearms into that, it’s horrific consequences.”

Unless a teen admits it in a police report, it has been difficult to get answers from local law enforcement about where many teens charged in gun crimes have gotten the weapons.

Of the 17 guns reported or seized on Albuquerque school grounds during the 2022-2023 school year, authorities could only identify the source of five of the guns.

In Saturday’s letter to parents, school Principal Cisneros opened with: “The worst of our fears played out last night.”

At the news conference hours later, Cisneros said, “Guns are not the way, violence is not the way, to go forward.”

“Our students are acquiring guns… in different ways for different reasons,” she said. “And it’s one thing to talk to your kid. At this stage, we need to go a little deeper.”

Cisneros suggested parents and guardians may want to start checking students rooms, cars and their backpacks.

“We’re losing innocent lives,” she said. “And we are just torn about this tragedy.”