Man in custody after fatal shooting near Old Town
Crime took place at office of former mayoral hopeful
A man is in custody after fatally shooting another man in a “random” attack late Saturday night in an office used by an Albuquerque mayoral hopeful, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
Steve Kramer, 42, was booked into jail and charged with the murder of Vincent Gutierrez.
Dinah Vargas called police shortly before 11 p.m. to report that she had witnessed the shooting while gathering belongings from an office Stella Padilla used during her campaign for mayor, according to the complaint.
Vargas told police that she and Padilla had been at the office at Central and Rio Grande earlier in the day to pack it up, but she realized she left some belongings behind and returned around 10:30 p.m.
Kramer, Vargas’ colleague, arrived at the office at the same time. Vargas told police his behavior was strange and he kept making grunting noises along with talking to himself angrily in the bathroom.
While at the office, Gutierrez, who had been living in the parking lot, arrived and Vargas let him in. She said because the office was closing, some of the furniture was going to Gutierrez.
Vargas told police that everyone sat down at a table to talk, and that Kramer was
still “grunting.” As she stood up to end the conversation and leave, she said she heard a popping noise. Kramer then turned to Vargas and asked “was I not supposed to do that?” while holding a smoking gun, according to Vargas’ statement to police.
Vargas screamed and said they needed to call the police and Kramer said, “we need to go out the backdoor, I don’t want to have to kill you.”
Vargas told police that she fled the office building and called the police.
When police arrived, Kramer was holding a gun and cellphone and told officers that “there is a dead guy inside, he was there when I got here, and that’s not my gun.”
Officers said Vargas called the shooting “absolutely random, and without provocation.”
The Central NW address is listed as a location on the “Stella Padilla 4 Mayor” Facebook page. Padilla, an Old Town resident, was one of 16 candidates who filed to run for mayor. But her name was not included on the ballot after the city clerk said she did not gather enough valid signatures in order to qualify.
Vargas, Padilla and a staff member with Padilla’s campaign did not return messages left Sunday.