Police detain suspected law office shooter
Posted at: 08/28/2012 4:50 PM
| Updated at: 08/29/2012 12:36 PM
By: Adam Camp, KOB Eyewitness News 4
Albuquerque police confirmed the suspect who shot a man outside the downtown Chip Venie Law Offices was detained Tuesday afternoon.
Police said the victim, only identified as an adult male, was found late Tuesday morning with a gun shot wound to the leg outside the law office at 833 Lomas Boulevard NW.
For most of the day, the Albuquerque Police Department released limited information concerning the shooting. Police would not say where the man was shot, if the shooting was inside the firm or in the parking lot, who shot the man or who the witnesses are.
They did confirm the questioning of three witnesses about the shooting, but did not report if any of the witnesses worked at the law office.
One of the witnesses was later identified as the suspected shooter.
"This is unique, certainly we've seen in the past here in Albuquerque, shooters who have shot individuals intruding into their homes. We've seen very strange circumstances," said Officer Tasia Martinez with APD.
One woman who works at a law office near the crime scene said she saw the victim before the shots were fired.
She said he was acting belligerent and like he wanted to fight someone.
"So he said 'you wanna come say something to me, come on, come on', and he took off walking down that way, and maybe two minutes later I heard a gunshot go off," Alicia Baca said.
She said the man walked toward the Chip Venie Law Office and then she heard the shots fired.
She said when she went outside, she saw paramedics putting the man into an ambulance.
Baca has worked at the John James D'Amato law offices for over three years. She said there are lots of strange people who walk around her offices. But she said none of those experiences were like Tuesday's incident.
"Our door's always locked here. I peeked through the window, and I normally will go check it out and see what's going on, but he looked pretty upset, so I just stayed looking through the window," she said.
Baca described the victim as an Hispanic male and said it looked like he had a rough past.
"Dark-complected, he had tattoos, looked like he had just come out of jail. He didn't look too good, very angry and very upset," she said.
Police said the victim is in stable condition at a regional hospital.
A search warrant was executed Tuesday afternoon at the law firm, where evidence, including a handgun, was collected.
Update: Detectives identified one of the witnesses as the suspected shooter. The suspect is in custody at this time.
Within the next few hours, authorities will determine if the shooter will face criminal charges. Police have yet to release a name or if the suspect is an employee of the law office.
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