APD investigating three separate deaths as homicides

Cases include man found in NE arroyo

Albuquerque police were investigating three separate deaths as homicides, including that of a man who was shot early Friday morning and later died at an area hospital and of another man found dead in an arroyo in northeast Albuquerque on Saturday morning.

Police had not yet released the identity of the shooting victim, and they said that the man found in the arroyo had not yet been identified. Both deaths are being investigated as homicides.

Authorities were not immediately saying how the man found in the arroyo died.

Officers were dispatched to 3205 Montgomery NE early Saturday morning, officer Simon Drobik said in a news release. When they arrived, they saw a man in the arroyo who was unresponsive. He was later pronounced dead by paramedics.

The shooting victim, meanwhile, was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital, where he later died from his injuries. Officers were dispatched to the hospital early Friday morning in reference to a man with a gunshot wound.

Drobik did not specify where the shooting occurred, although he did say that the police activity in the 500 block of Cagua was related to this investigation.

The third case Albuquerque police are investigating involves an 87-year-old woman found dead in her northeast Albuquerque home on Friday. Police say she may have been killed.

Drobik said officers found Josephina Ortega dead in her home on Euclid NE. He didn’t say how investigators believe she may have been killed. Drobik said police have no suspects.

Police are asking anyone with information on any of these cases to contact Crime Stoppers at 843STOP or call 242-COPS.