Man charged in shotgun killing
He tells judge he shot best friend by mistake while carrying weapon
John Bennett quietly wept throughout his first court appearance Wednesday after sheriff’s deputies say he accidentally shot and killed his best friend Tuesday with a shotgun he’d been carrying around for protection.
Deputies responding to a call in a neighborhood near Second Street north of Alameda midafternoon Tuesday found a chaotic and bloody scene. Charles Ulery, 61, was in the driveway of a mobile home on the 100 block of Cynthia Loop NW, dead of a shotgun wound to his head.
Bennett, 46, told the first deputies to arrive that he had shot Ulery, his best friend, and reiterated that it was accidental in a later interview with a homicide
detective.
But according to a criminal complaint filed against Bennett in Metropolitan Court, detectives believed he was negligent because his gun had been pointed toward Ulery’s face, and because he told deputies he “was not knowledgeable in how to handle firearms.”
They charged him with involuntary manslaughter, a felony, and booked him into the county jail.
That’s where he was Wednesday when he appeared before Metropolitan Court Judge Henry Alaniz on video conference. He was shaking and crying as his public defender, Leanne Hamilton, argued for his release.
“This case comes out of a terrible, awful, tragic accident that occurred. Mr. Bennett is broken apart over this, this is ... his best friend who is now deceased,” Hamilton said. “He doesn’t need to be in jail; he needs to be supported through this horrible, tragic time.”
Alaniz released Bennett on his own recognizance and ordered him to report to pretrial services.
Accidental shootings occasionally happen in Albuquerque, including an incident in 2014 in which a 16-year-old who was playing with a gun accidentally shot and killed his 15-year-old friend. Albuquerque Police Department detectives who investigated the case did not file any charges against the 16-year-old.
Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Felicia Romero said Wednesday she didn’t have any more detail on why BCSO detectives decided to charge Bennett.
In his interview with detectives, Bennett told them Ulery was helping him move out of his mobile home Tuesday before the shooting. Ulery had parked outside the mobile home and Bennett got out, then grabbed his loaded shotgun from the back seat and tucked it under his armpit. That’s when it somehow went off, killing Ulery and recoiling and hitting Bennett in the face, according to his statement.
Bennett told detectives he was carrying the shotgun for protection after his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend had threatened him and her.