Man arrested in 2023 fatal shooting

Prosecutors filed a motion Wednesday to keep a man behind bars in a 2023 shooting that left one woman dead and another injured. 

Angel Gonzales, 23, is charged with an open count of murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and four counts of tampering with evidence in the death of Angela Garcia. He was arrested and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Wednesday and does not yet have an attorney.

"Defendant made efforts to hide his identity and avoid responsibility, and the court should expect the same conduct relating to conditions of release," according to a pretrial detention motion.

On July 18, 2023, Albuquerque police were dispatched to the 600 block of Paisano NE, near Juan Tabo and Copper, after receiving a call that two women had been shot, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

Upon arrival, officers found Garcia dead with a gunshot wound. Another woman was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital in stable condition, the complaint states. 

Witnesses told police that the alleged shooter ran and police found items of clothing, including a shirt and a black face mask, left behind, according to the complaint. 

A witness at the scene told police he was talking with the two women when a man wearing all black with a black face mask approached and asked if "they had anything," which the witness believed was in reference to drugs, the complaint states. 

The man pulled out a gun and told the two women, 'Gimme everything you got,' and Garcia pulled out her gun in response, according to the complaint. 

Shortly after, several gunshots were fired. The witness told officers that the man fired at least two bullets toward Garcia, the complaint states.

Police obtained surveillance footage from the area and saw video of the man arriving on foot roughly three minutes before the shooting, according to the complaint.

Footage showed a man running and shooting a gun behind him as he fled north on Paisano, according to the complaint. Video showed the two women fall to the ground "almost simultaneously" as he fired the gun in their direction.

"The suspect is wearing a black 'shiesty' face mask with only his eyes showing," the complaint states. 

Officers were later able to find the mask in a bush and a gun at the base of a tree near the shooting scene, according to the complaint. Police said the gun matched bullet casings from the shooting.

Police collected DNA from the face mask, and in October officers were notified of a "high stringency arrestee hit" for Gonzales, meaning the DNA collected matched a sample from a person arrested for a crime in the past. 

In June, Gonzales was charged with receiving a stolen firearm, but the case was dismissed without prejudice because prosecutors failed to proceed with the case within a certain time limit. 

Gonzales was also charged in August with possession of drug paraphernalia and tampering with evidence. A warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear in court.