Man, 18, charged in West Side shooting that paralyzed teen
High school senior was shot as guns came out at house party
Izeria Armstead knew something was wrong when she tried to get up off the ground and couldn’t feel her legs.
Doctors confirmed her fears at the hospital: a bullet had struck her spinal cord. She was paralyzed from the waist down.
“It did tear me down a lot. I didn’t know how to react because that’s me not walking ever again … I’m still trying, to this day … to accept it,” the 18-year-old high school senior said.
The incident was one of 89 shootings resulting in injury between Jan. 1 and April 20, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. Over the same period last year, there were 65.
Joseph Zamora, 18, is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and shooting from a motor vehicle in the March 14 incident that flared up during a house party on Albuquerque’s West Side.
Armstead said it started when “things went sideways” between some of her friends at the get-together. Then the guns came out — something that she said happens
often when tensions rise at gatherings.
Armstead said a man with a gun was trying to pull her friend, Zamora — someone she’s known since middle school — out of a vehicle.
“I just wasn’t scared of anything at the moment and I wanted to help him,” she said. “Because I’ve always been against guns … I wanted to stop what was going on and prevent anybody from getting shot.”
But after she pulled the armed man off Zamora, Armstead said she was shot in the back. Police say Zamora fired those shots before fleeing.
According to court records, police responded around 1:30 a.m. to reports of gunfire and people running from a home in the 4800 block of Petra Pointe NW, near Unser and Western Trail. Officers found multiple bullet casings in the street and Armstead, who had been shot in the torso and foot, on the ground.
A witness told police that, as Armstead pulled the armed man off Zamora, he (Zamora) pulled a handgun from his waist and fired multiple times toward the two. Police say the man Armstead had pulled off Zamora then returned fire.
Police found the gun used in the shooting inside a shoebox at the home of Zamora’s friend, who had been told to “get rid of it.”
Zamora told police he went to the party, but left before the shooting happened. When told there was cellphone video of him at the home prior to the shooting, Zamora said he no longer wanted to talk and asked police to leave his home.
Armstead said she spent three weeks in the hospital, calling it the “worst experience ever.”
“I hated being there. I just wanted to go home … ,” she said. “In the hospital, I would scream, cry, just hit things … I would have really bad days. I would just cry and cry and cry until I was feeling OK.”
Despite the ordeal, Armstead said she managed to finish her senior year at Volcano Vista with As and Bs across the board. Her last day of school was on Thursday and she’s looking forward to graduation, albeit a little nervous to see her classmates for the first time since the incident.
Armstead said she tries to stay positive and be happy — and grateful.
“Don’t take life for granted … because anything could happen to you. For people that are going through things like this — be strong and always think of the positive things you can still do,” she said. “What I always think about is I’m still here and still alive.”