Four shot to death in suspected murder-suicide in NW Albuquerque

Sep. 1—Four people — including a father and son — were fatally shot outside a Northwest Albuquerque apartment building on Saturday night. Police believe one of the dead shot the other three and killed himself.

The incident marked the end of a violent month in the city, which included two other homicides being investigated as possible murder-suicides and 11 killings in a one-week span.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said police initially arrested a man who ran from them after the shooting. Officers determined he was not involved, then released him.

At about 11:50 p.m., officers responded to a call of multiple people being shot at outside the Valley Apartments in the 1800 block of Indian School in Northwest Albuquerque.

Hartsock said when officers arrived, they found four people dead in an apartment building parking lot: a woman in her 20s, a man in his 20s — later identified as the shooter — a man in his 50s and his adult son. Police were not releasing the names of the victims until they have notified the families as of Sunday afternoon.

APD Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock said at Sunday afternoon's press conference that witnesses said all of the victims knew each other and "there had been some alcohol consumption going on all day and some personal disputes (that) flared up," before the suspect fatally shot the three people and himself.

He said the shooter had no prior known criminal history and police will look into the history of the firearm and of everyone involved.

"We will try and understand what happened," Hartsock said.

Hartsock said APD has recently seen a rise in murder-suicides; many of them were believed to be a result of domestic disputes.

Homicide detectives are continuing to interview witnesses and the investigation is ongoing, Gallegos said.