FARMINGTON, N.M. — An 18-year-old man armed with at least three guns roamed through a northwestern New Mexico community firing randomly at cars and houses Monday, killing three people and injuring six others including two police officers before he was killed, authorities said.
The shootings occurred around 11 a.m. in Farmington, a city of about 50,000 people near the Four Corners — where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet — that is a supply line and bedroom community to the region’s oil and natural gas industry.
Officers responding to reports of shots being fired encountered the attacker within minutes and killed him with at least one shot, Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said in a video released Monday night. He said the gunman fired at least three weapons, including an “AR-style rifle.”
The shooting was “honestly one of the most horrific and difficult days that Farmington has ever had as a community,” he said.
The identities of the gunman and the victims weren’t immediately released.
Investigators were still struggling to determine a motive for the attack, including talking to the shooter’s family.
“But at this point it appears to be purely random, that there was no schools, no churches and no individuals targeted,” Hebbe said. “During the course of the event, the suspect roamed throughout the neighborhood up to a quarter of a mile. At least six houses and three cars were shot in the course of the event, as the suspect randomly fired at whatever entered his head to shoot at.”
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement that she was praying for the families of the victims and that the incident “serves at yet another reminder of how gun violence destroys lives in our state and our country every single day.”
Mayor Nate Duckett said in a statement that the shooting “has left us reeling in anguish and disbelief.”
At Hills Church, just a few miles away from the attack scene, dozens of people gathered around a tall metal cross as the sun set Monday to pray. Some wrapped their arms around each other as they listened. The mayor and law enforcement officers were among those in the crowd.
Lead pastor Matt Mizell talked about living in a “dark and broken world” but told the crowd that there was still hope and asked God to provide them strength.
Officers began receiving reports of gunshots at about 10:57 a.m. The first officer arrived at 11:02 a.m. and three minutes later the gunman had been killed, Hebbe said.
At first officers thought there might be a second suspect and schools were locked down “because we didn’t know where any other suspects could be,” the chief said. However, it now appears that the 18-year-old acted alone, he said.
One Farmington officer was shot and taken to the hospital, where he was treated and released, while a state police officer also was shot and drove himself to the hospital where he remained and is doing well, Hebbe said. That officer was reported to be in stable condition.
Joseph Robledo, a 32-year-old tree trimmer, said he rushed home after learning that his wife and 1-year-old daughter had sought shelter in the laundry room when gunshots rang out.
A bullet went through his daughter’s window and room, without hitting anyone.
Robledo jumped a fence to get in through the back door. Out front he found an older woman in the street who had been wounded while driving by. She appeared to have fallen out of her car, which kept rolling without her, he said.
“I went out to see because the lady was just lying in the road, and to figure just what the heck was going on,” Robledo said. He and others began to administer first aid.