Man accused of shooting two people, one fatally, in less than a week

A man was arrested after allegedly gunning down a woman then, a few days later, shooting a man in northeast Albuquerque.

The motives in both incidents are unclear. 

Jevon Thomas, 28, of Albuquerque, is charged with an open count of murder, armed robbery with a deadly weapon, shooting at or from a vehicle (resulting in death), tampering with evidence, aggravated battery (great bodily harm with a deadly weapon), fleeing an officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Thomas is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

The woman's identity is not being released as detectives attempt to notify her family, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said in a news release on Saturday.

Police said they were able to track Thomas down using surveillance video and data taken from the woman's phone.

At 5:19 p.m. Dec. 9, APD received a call of a suspicious person in the 4800 block of Carlisle, near Interstate 25 and Montgomery. The caller told police two people told them to dial 911 to report a person needing help after getting into a crash, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

When officers arrived, they found an unconscious woman with a gunshot wound to the shoulder near an SUV that crashed into a curb, the complaint states. Police said first responders unsuccessfully attempted to give her aid. An autopsy later revealed she had been shot in the chest with the bullet passing through her torso, "damaging her heart and lungs," the complaint states.

At the crime scene, according to the court document, police found a black holster and a bullet. Police said about 10 minutes before they received the call, a ShotSpotter activation recorded a shot "in the immediate area" where the bullet was found.

Two witnesses told police they heard a gunshot before seeing a heavyset man in black clothing and a ski mask run eastbound through an alley, police said.

Video surveillance from a nearby business and apartment complex showed the man — later identified as Thomas — walking east after the shooting, police said. Police later pinged the woman's phone Thomas stole and tracked it to an apartment where he was staying at, according to the complaint.

A few days later, at 4:25 a.m. on Saturday, police received a call of a shooting in the 4200 block of Montgomery, about a mile away from where the Dec. 9 homicide took place.

According to the complaint, video surveillance from an apartment showed Thomas and the man walking together before Thomas allegedly shot the man.

When officers arrived, they found the man lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest, police said. He told police he was shot by someone he did not know before being taken to a local hospital where he is in critical condition, the complaint states.  

Police said they found a bullet nearby that was similar to the one that killed the woman.

At 12:33 p.m. Saturday, police said they saw Thomas leave the apartment complex carrying a black handgun. About six hours later, after identifying him through law enforcement databases, they arrested Thomas, but not before he dropped a pistol magazine and tried to run away, according to the complaint.

Police said Thomas later told them he had found the gun in a dumpster a few days earlier. A few hours after finding the firearm, he told police, he fired it "to break up a fight" and "that is the only time he ever fired the weapon," the complaint states.

It is unclear who the fight was with.