APD investigates four homicides in as many days
This time last year, the city had opened 16 cases; current 2021 tally is 32
The Albuquerque Police Department opened two separate homicide investigations on Monday: one after a body was found in a park near Four Hills and the other following a deadly fight in the southeast part of the city.
The department has been called out to four killings in the past four days — this as homicide detectives are tackling double the number of cases they had at this time last year and the year before.
APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said no arrests have been made in either of Monday’s incidents, but identified Dony Carrera-Flores, 33, and Abel Mares, 22, as the two killed on Friday and Saturday.
On Monday, Gallegos said police were called some time before 11 p.m. to a fight between two men at an apartment in the 500 block of Utah SE, near Zuni and Wyoming. He said officers found one man dead inside the apartment and learned the other man had left the area.
“This is an active investigation,” he said. Gallegos gave no other details. Hours earlier, around 7:45 a.m., officers responded after receiving a report of an unconscious person at Singing Arrow Park, near Four Hills south of Central, he said.
Albuquerque Fire Rescue pronounced the person dead at the scene. Gallegos did not give any other details.
APD has opened 32 homicide cases thus far in 2021 and made an arrest in six of the cases, according to Journal records. The city had tallied 16 cases by this time last year and in 2019, when Albuquerque finished the year with its highest homicide total in recent memory.