Confrontation over loud music ends in exchange of gunfire, police say
23-year-old arrested after neighbor is shot in the neck
Short ly before midnight Monday, the sound of music blasting from a Southwest Albuquerque street was interrupted by the cracking of gunfire.
Police say 23-year-old Alejandro Villa was angry because music coming from his neighbor’s house was keeping him awake. He walked outside and fired a shot into the air, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
A man who was at the house where the music was coming from pulled out a gun and he and Villa exchanged gunfire, police say. The man was struck in the neck.
Officer Fred Duran, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said officers were called to the 7500 block of Aster SW around 11:40 p.m. by residents who said they heard gunshots.
“We get about a dozen of those calls, if not more, on a nightly basis,” Duran said. “A lot of times we’re not able to find evidence or damage or injury.”
But Duran said this time, they found bullet casings in the road and witnesses who told them what happened.
Officers arrested Villa outside his home.
The man who was shot immediately lef t the scene. Police believe that’s because he is a convicted felon and was worried he would be arrested for having a gun.
Duran said police aren’t pursuing charges against him because he was defending his life.
He later turned up at a local hospital and was in stable condition Tuesday.
Villa was charged with aggravated battery with great bodily harm and booked into the county jail.
Police found four guns, including an AK-47, a shotgun and a handgun in his home, along with multiple magazines of bullets, according to court records.