Driver arrested after alleged road rage shooting in NE ABQ

A man is accused of shooting another man in the head during a road rage incident in Northeast Albuquerque on Thursday.

Cecilio Lopez, 31, of Albuquerque, is charged with an open count of murder, shooting at or from a vehicle resulting in death, tampering with evidence and being a felon with a firearm in the shooting death of 19-year-old Roman Valenciano.

“Roman was such a bright light and a sweet soul,” Valenciano’s mother, Deborah Valenciano, said in a GoFundMe page she put up. “He had a purest heart. He had a special way of making everyone around him smile and feel loved. His kindness and joy left a lasting impact on so many, and his memory will continue to live on through all the lives he touched.”

Lopez is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

In a Friday news release, Gilbert Gallegos, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson, said police tracked down the car involved in the shooting through license plate readers and used cellphone records to confirm Lopez was driving on San Mateo at the time of the shooting.

At about 1:51 p.m. Thursday, APD responded to a call of a shooting in the 1400 block of San Mateo NE, south of Constitution.

When officers arrived, they found Valenciano “slumped over” in the driver’s seat of a gray car bleeding from the head, according to the complaint. 

As they looked at his body, the car, which was still in drive, began rolling away. After officers stopped it, Albuquerque Fire Rescue arrived and pronounced Valenciano dead at the scene, police said.

Video surveillance from a nearby business showed a silver Ford Mustang “driving parallel to the victim’s vehicle” before the Mustang drove off and Valenciano’s car slowed down, the complaint states.

A few minutes before the call, at 1:48 p.m., ShotSpotter indicated two rounds were fired near the intersection of San Mateo and Summer, according to the complaint. The activation was “located approximately 50 yards from where the victim was located by police,” police said.

At about 2:15 p.m., police saw the silver Mustang drive through the Constitution and San Mateo intersection before it turned around on Constitution and drove away, the complaint states. Police said they learned the driver — later identified as Lopez — came back to the scene multiple times “to look.”

At the scene, police said they found bullets in Valenciano’s front passenger and rear driver’s side windows. ”One fired bullet struck the victim in the face and the other fired bullet exited out of the rear driver’s window,” the complaint states.

Police said video from a half-hour earlier, at about 1:45 p.m., showed Lopez going north on San Mateo, near Phoenix, before making a U-turn and driving south where he pulled in front of Valenciano, according to the complaint. As they continued driving, Lopez “periodically brake checked” and “would stop in the road,” police said. 

Another video showed Valenciano driving in the middle lane on San Mateo, south of Constitution, when Lopez pulled up along Valenciano’s passenger side, the complaint states. Lopez then sped away and Valenciano slowed to a stop in the middle lane where APD later found him, police said.

“It should be noted that the silver Mustang appears to be the only vehicle parallel to the victim’s vehicle when the two vehicles are located where the shots are believed to have been fired,” according to the complaint.

Police said they later found the Mustang, which had been painted black, at Lopez’s girlfriend’s house. On Friday, police arrested Lopez, Gallegos said.

Prosecutors filed a motion to keep Lopez behind bars, saying, “Shooting at someone, over a road rage incident, is extremely reckless and dangerous behavior, that shows no concern for the safety of the community.”

In 2012, Lopez , then 17, was accused of fatally stabbing a teen at Cesar Chavez Community School, the Journal previously reported. The case was transferred to district court, according to court records, but it is unclear what happened in that case.

Gregory R.C. Hasman is a general assignment reporter and the Road Warrior. He can be reached at ghasman@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3820.