ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — One person is dead and another wounded following a shooting early Friday at a dormitory complex at the University of New Mexico, prompting a campus-wide search for the suspect.
The campus was closed and yellow tape cordoned off a student housing area as authorities conducted a sweep for the suspect.
A shelter-in-place order remained in effect at midday and few people were seen on campus by an Associated Press reporter, hours after the university posted an alert announcing that a shooting had taken place just before 3:30 a.m.
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 on social media just after 6 a.m. “Multiple law enforcement agencies are on scene and actively investigating,” the university said.
Mikey Beck, who was staying in student housing this week as part of new student orientation at the university, 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,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. People on campus were told not to move without direction from campus police, said the statement from university spokesperson Cinnamon Blair.
Details on the two victims were not released, nor was any description of the suspect. Casas del Rio is a four-building complex with furnished suite apartments that combined have more than 1,000 beds, according to the Lobo Development Corp.
The university in central Albuquerque has about 23,000 students during the school year. New students like Beck have been visiting as part of weekly scheduled orientations ahead of the fall semester, which begins in about three weeks.
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 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.
