Police: Man fatally shot by apartment security guard after shooting two people in NE ABQ

A man opened fire on a family in their car at a Northeast Albuquerque church parking lot early Tuesday, killing a man and injuring his mother, then driving off with them inside, police said. Minutes later, he rammed into another vehicle up the road, got into a fight with that driver, then was fatally shot by a security guard.

The identities of those killed in the chaotic incident, the alleged shooter and man in the vehicle, have not been released and the motive is unclear. The Albuquerque Police Department said the mother was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound and her condition was unknown.

“This is all very complicated with different scenes and we’re still gathering information,” APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said Tuesday morning. “... We’re trying to identify everyone to figure out what happened.”

After the incident, there was an Instagram post by social media influencer, tophiachu. In the post, she said her brother and mother were shot.

“Tell your loved ones you love them,” she said. “Hug them, you know?” She said she was not advised to post anything. The post has since been deleted.

At about 3:30 a.m., officers responded to a reported shooting in the area of Ponderosa NE, near Montgomery Park, Gallegos said. A woman told police she was sleeping inside a vehicle with her brother and mother in the St. Andrew Presbyterian Church parking lot when she was woken up by a “pop or something” and broken glass, he said.

She told police she saw her brother sitting in the driver’s seat with a gunshot wound to the head, Gallegos said. The woman told police she saw her mother in the backseat had also been shot.

The man tried pulling the woman out of the car and she ran, Gallegos said. The man got in the vehicle and drove east on Montgomery with the brother and mother still inside.

About 10 minutes later, the man crashed into a Jeep across the street from the Sunset Pointe Apartments in the 6500 block of Montgomery, near Louisiana, Gallegos said. The man and the driver of the Jeep got into a fight, which carried over into the apartment complex parking lot.

A security guard intervened and shot the man, Gallegos said. The driver of the Jeep told police the security guard saved his life, he said.

Traffic was shut down on Montgomery between Marla and Andrew, west of Louisiana, for several hours as police investigated the incident.