Shooting in school parking lot wounds one
Police seek gunman after incident at Christian school
One person was injured when an altercation erupted in gunfire in the parking lot of a private Christian school in Northeast Albuquerque on Wednesday.
The shooting occurred around 12:30 p.m. outside Christ Lutheran School — which offers programs for preschool, elementary and middle school students — at Candelaria and Pennsylvania NE, during lunch break.
Police Chief Harold Medina said officers detained multiple people as they searched for the shooter. He said one person was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound and was in stable condition.
Medina said the incident started when “some younger adults” walked off the neighboring Sandia High School campus. He said there was an altercation involving the group in the parking lot of Christ Lutheran before somebody pulled a gun and began firing.
Medina said investigators were trying to identify the shooter and would try to find out where the gun came
from. Medina did not say whether any of the people involved were students at Sandia High or Christ Lutheran.
Paul Durkin was putting his 3-yearold daughter Sophia, who attends Christ Lutheran, into a car seat when he heard eight to 10 gunshots ring out behind him.
“Then, people started fleeing in every direction,” he said. “It was just a scary experience.”
Durkin said he had noticed a handful of people congregating in the parking lot of Christ Lutheran before the shooting started.
“They were much younger, I saw a couple of them run … over to the Sandia High School parking lot when it was happening,” he said. Durkin said the others drove off.
A dash camera video from Durkin’s car showed him getting his daughter strapped into a car seat when one shot rang out. After he closes the car door, multiple gunshots can be heard as people scatter frantically through the parking lot.
Durkin is seen moving quickly around the car and into the driver’s seat as his daughter exclaims, “That’s so loud, so loud.” Durkin tells his daughter, “Hold on baby girl” as he pulls out a cellphone.
“I went into a high alert mode and I was just processing, trying to keep us safe,” Durkin said.
The incident comes less than a month after a shooting at Washington Middle School near Downtown that left one 13-year-old dead and another charged with murder.
On Aug. 13, Juan Saucedo Jr., an eighth grader, was arrested after allegedly shooting classmate Bennie Hargrove during lunch break. Authorities said Saucedo Jr. had taken the gun used in the killing from his father’s home.