Arrest made in 2015 shooting

14-year-old boy was killed in drive-by at Pat Hurley Park

Almost three years after a fatal drive-by shooting at a Northwest Albuquerque park, police say they have arrested the man who was behind the wheel when a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed.

Albuquerque Police Department Spokesman Simon Drobik said 20-year-old Francisco Lopez was booked into jail and charged with first degree murder, shooting at or from a motor vehicle and conspiracy in connection with the late July 2015 slaying of Isaiah Albright.

Officer found Albright with a bullet in the head at Pat Hurley Park, near Coors and Central NW, in the early morning hours of July 27.

Police say shots were fired from a vehicle at a large group of teenagers at the park around 2 a.m., killing Albright and wounding two other teens. They do not believe Albright was the intended target of the drive-by.

Drobik said police now believe Lopez was behind the wheel during the shooting.

“He was the driver so he is implicated in the homicide,” he said.

Christopher Rodriguez, then 17, was arrested in Sept. 2015 and charged with murder. That case has since been dismissed, and Rodriguez was released, after a relative of his told police that he had shot Albright. That relative was never charged in the shooting. According to court documents, this was due in part to then-District Attorney Kari Brandenburg’s office not responding to how to “proceed” with a homicide case against the relative.