Suspect arrested after University of New Mexico dorm shooting leaves 1 dead

Police vehicles are seen on the scene of a deadly shooting at a University of New Mexico residence that put the campus into lockdown. (KOAT)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One person is dead and another wounded following a shooting early Friday at a University of New Mexico dormitory that prompted the evacuation of hundreds of students and a campuswide search for the suspect, who has since been taken into custody.

University officials lifted a shelter in place order late Friday afternoon, saying there was still an active investigation and that the main campus in Albuquerque would remain closed. They said students were allowed to eat at the dining hall and return to their dorms but otherwise should avoid the crime scene.

Mayor Tim Keller announced the arrest Friday evening, saying “we are deeply grateful that the offender is now in custody.”

The mayor did not release any information about the suspect or where and when the arrest took place.

For much of the day, authorities had the area around the student housing complex cordoned off with yellow tape as police vehicles blocked roadways and investigators gathered.

The two people shot were inside a dorm building where they had been visiting a student, but they were not students themselves, said Lt. Tim Delgado with the University of New Mexico Police Department.

Authorities have yet to release any other details about who was shot. Police had evacuated parts of the campus earlier in the day.

“We had a student orientation going so there were like 400 kids in dorms, so we wanted to make sure they were safe,” Delgado said.

Officials issued an initial alert just before 3:30 a.m. that a shooting had taken place. Campus police arrived at the Casas del Rio housing center to find two people with gunshot wounds -- one dead and the other with non-life-threatening injuries. Another alert asking people to shelter in place was sent out just after 6 a.m.

Mikey Beck, who was staying in student housing this week as part of new student orientation, said he heard gunshots overnight and saw what appeared to be an injured person hiding in some bushes. Two other people jumped out of a dorm window and ran, he said.

Beck said he was excited to start his freshman year but the incident was disconcerting. “It’s really sketchy out here. Just being in Albuquerque is really scary,” he said.

Not far from the dorms, a line of university buses waited for students to board, many of them carrying backpacks and pulling small luggage carts with their belongings. The university was conducting a “staged, tactical evacuation,” spokesperson Cinnamon Blair said in an emailed statement. People were told not to move without direction from campus police.

The university in central Albuquerque has about 23,000 students during the school year. New students like Beck have been visiting as part of scheduled orientations ahead of the fall semester, which begins in about three weeks.

An increased law enforcement presence on and around the campus was planned for coming days, university President Garnett Stokes said in a letter to the campus community.

“We understand this incident may be especially distressing for new students and their families who are here this week for orientation,” Garnett wrote.

New Mexico’s largest city has struggled with violent crime in recent years, particularly among juveniles. District Attorney Sam Bregman, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, has called for state lawmakers to do more to address what he describes as a crisis.

The plea for legislative action comes amid violence in New Mexico involving young suspects, including a fatal hit-and-run in Albuquerque and a shooting in Las Cruces in March that killed three and wounded 15 others.

Prosecutors, law enforcement and Republican lawmakers have pressed Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to convene a special legislative session to address the state’s crime problem. Despite voicing her disappointment with the Democratic-controlled Legislature at the end of the last session, the governor has not given recent indications that she will be calling lawmakers back to Santa Fe.

By Susan Montoya Bryan And Matthew Brown.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.