Albuquerque reports record-high 101st homicide

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The city of Albuquerque has now surpassed 100 homicides since the start of the year.

A man officers found dead with a gunshot wound to the head Sunday night in south-central Albuquerque is the city’s 101st homicide victim, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Several hours earlier around 1 a.m. police responded to a shooting at an food market that left one man dead and another wounded. The second man is in stable condition, the newspaper reported.

These events come a week after a chaotic Halloween weekend of shootings at house parties in the city and Bernalillo County that left three dead.

Albuquerque is now at its its highest homicide total and rate in recorded history.

“We have devoted a lot of resources to the increase in homicides during the pandemic,” Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said in a statement Sunday. “At the same time, our detectives are committed to solving homicides from past years, whether they occurred last year or decades ago.”

The majority of this year’s deaths have involved guns, the newspaper reported, and they include multiple double homicides, one triple homicide and a deadly school shooting. Bar fights, road rage incidents and street squabbles have also erupted in gunfire.

Although homicides have repeatedly hit record-breaking highs in recent years, a growing population had kept Albuquerque below its highest homicide rate — 16.6 per 100,000, in 1996 — when there were 100,000 fewer residents.

With 101 homicides, the city is now just shy of a rate of 18 per 100,000, the Journal said.

Incumbent Mayor Tim Keller signed an executive order last month creating a task force to focus on gun violence.