Suspect accused of gunning down man over parking space at Albuquerque bar

A dispute over a parking space allegedly led a man to pistol-whip a woman and shoot another man to death Friday night outside a bar in Northwest Albuquerque.

David Casarez, 38, is charged with an open count of murder, two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The man killed was identified as 22-year-old Carlos Ochoa, who had driven a group of girls to Effingbar and Grill for a birthday celebration.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said Casarez will be booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Officers responded around 10:30 p.m. to a shooting outside the bar on Sequoia NW, just west of Coors, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Casarez had called 911, saying he had shot someone, and police found Ochoa lying face up beside his car with multiple gunshot wounds. Ochoa was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they detained Casarez, who told them the shooting was in self-defense after Ochoa pulled a gun on him, but officers learned otherwise. One of the women who rode with Ochoa said it began when he pulled into a spot in front of Casarez’s SUV.

The woman told police Casarez walked up and said, “You think it’s funny,” before punching Ochoa in the face, according to the complaint. A few of the women tried to help Ochoa when Casarez’s wife started to fight them.

Police said a woman with Ochoa said Casarez went to his car and got a handgun before pistol-whipping her with it when she yelled “gun.” Then, the woman said, Casarez shot Ochoa multiple times — she heard the bullets whizzing by — and he fell to the ground.

The woman told police Ochoa tried to sit up, but Casarez shot him again, “causing him to lie down and die,” the complaint states. Both Casarez and his wife, who came with him, said Ochoa was armed, but no gun was found and no witnesses reported him having one.

Police said Casarez told them he was “disappointed” Ochoa took the parking spot and he wanted to “kill the driver with kindness.” He said when he approached, Ochoa threatened him with a gun that made him “scared for his life.”

Casarez told police he tried to shake hands with Ochoa when he attacked him and the women with him started to fight his wife, so he went to get a gun, the complaint states. Casarez said he pistol-whipped one of the women before he saw Ochoa pointing the gun at him.

Police said Casarez told them he didn’t keep moving toward Ochoa but fired over one woman’s shoulder at him and then shot him again, at which time “he fell and did not get up.” Detectives confronted Casarez with the delay between gunshots recorded by a gunfire detection device, which picked up several shots, then a four-second pause, followed by a single shot.

Detectives said the bullet casings at the scene, with one found separate near Ochoa’s body, showed Casarez kept moving toward Ochoa as he fired, the complaint states. Police said Casarez and his wife had “multiple opportunities to put themselves in a place of safety, but (chose) to fight ... leading to (Ochoa’s) death.”