Albuquerque police at the scene of a fatal shootout in front of the Central Grill and Coffee House on Central, near Rio Grande. (Roberto E. Rosales / )
Albuquerque police at the scene of a fatal shootout in front of the Central Grill and Coffee House on Central, near Rio Grande. (Roberto E. Rosales / )
Albuquerque police at the scene of a fatal shootout in front of the Central Grill and Coffee House on Central, near Rio Grande. (Roberto E. Rosales / )
An Albuquerque man is dead and police are looking for the shooter after a traffic incident broke out outside a cafe in the old town on Wednesday morning.
Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said the detectives would comb through video evidence and speak to witnesses to try to find the person responsible.
He said police responded to a shooting in the parking lot of the Central Grill and Coffee House in Central near Rio Grande at around 8:40 a.m. Gallegos said witnesses told police that at least two people in separate vehicles got into a confrontation that led to the shootings.
He said it appeared to be a traffic incident that escalated to a murder outside the cafe. Gallegos said the suspect escaped when customers and onlookers tried to help the man, but he died on the scene.
“It’s always shocking to people who experience this,” he said of those who tried to help.
Gallegos said the man who was shot may have someone else in his vehicle at the time, but did not provide any further information. He said police had preliminary identification of the deceased but did not disclose his name.
“It appears to be someone from Albuquerque and not a tourist,” said Gallegos.
The incident had turned traffic in the area when police closed Central and tourists gathered in the city for the Balloon Fiesta in the old town. Numerous people were seen trying to get a glimpse of the crime scene as they came and went from the Old Town Square.
A group of women asked what had happened when they passed and were visibly upset by the news that a fatal shootout had taken place across the street. They looked over at the mobile crime labs and crime scene tape and talked as they walked down the sidewalk.
“Aside from the shootings themselves, there was never any danger,” Gallegos said of the area, which at this time of year was full of people shopping and visiting one of the city’s hippest tourist spots.
Gallegos said road anger is “always a problem” for the police as the city faces a 78% increase in homicides on a deduction this year – and calls road anger the “epitome” of armed violence.
According to Journal records, Albuquerque Police have investigated at least four roadside homicides since 2019. Of these four, one was cleared up.
Most recently, 26-year-old Taylor Lord was fatally shot on June 30 after a near-miss on the West Side. Lord, the passenger in a pickup truck, was shot dead as he approached the other car after the near-crash of Eagle Ranch and Paseo del Norte.
“You have confrontations on the street and you never know if someone has a gun and what could happen,” said Gallegos of the incident on Wednesday. “… Glances at other drivers can also lead to confrontations, so we want everyone to be safe and avoid these confrontations. They escalate very quickly, we don’t know if this is the case, but it looks like it. “
Gallegos admitted that this is the second murder before the cafe.
In January 2019, a man was fatally shot at a neighboring bus stop when someone tried to steal his bicycle. The shooting resulted in an hour-long manhunt through the Bosque, but Albuquerque police came empty-handed.
More than a year later, Elijah Amos was charged with this murder and is currently on trial.
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