Suspect arrested in June shooting death near NE Heights apartment building

Albuquerque police arrested a suspect in a late-June shooting that left a man dead and woman injured outside an apartment building in the Northeast Heights.

Diego Gurule, 19, is charged with an open count of murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and shooting at an occupied building in the June 30 death of Dominic Ramirez, 42.

Gurule was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday. It is unclear if he is represented by an attorney.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:

Police responded around 6:40 p.m. to a shooting at an apartment complex in the 2900 block of Muriel NE. Officers found Ramirez fatally shot and his girlfriend injured.

Police found 29 bullet casings in the parking lot and a bottle of fentanyl pills near Ramirez’s body.

The girlfriend told police that a man on a bicycle fatally shot Ramirez and wounded her with a volley of gunfire after the men got into an fight in the parking lot.

A relative of Gurule told police that, soon after the shooting, he showed up to a friend’s house covered in blood. The relative said the friend offered to take Gurule to the hospital but he left the house.

Police found surveillance video that showed a figure matching Gurule’s description fleeing the shooting. A search of his cellphone data showed he was in the area when the shooting occurred.

The relative told police Gurule came to his mother’s home days after the shooting.

The relative said Gurule told his mother Ramirez accused him of stealing the bike and attacked him before Gurule shot the couple. The relative said Gurule told his mother that he wanted to turn himself in but neither he nor his mother called police.

The relative told police Gurule’s mother was afraid Gurule would hurt her and said he was mentally ill and would have violent episodes.

Court records show Gurule’s mother filed a restraining order against him months before the shooting, citing that he was extremely paranoid and occasionally physically abusive. According to the petition she filed, Gurule once threatened her, saying he “wanted to make (her) feel the way he was feeling.”

Detectives secured an arrest warrant for Gurule and on July 30 he was arrested following a standoff with the SWAT team at a home in Northeast Albuquerque.