Chief compares 2005 shooting to Emcore

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Five years after a diagnosed schizophrenic shot and killed five people, including two veteran police officers, Chief Ray Schultz compared the tragedy to a more recent Albuquerque shooting that left three people dead.

Schultz told dozens of police officers, relatives of victims and other onlookers Friday that the events of Aug. 18, 2005, still seem fresh to him, especially after last month's shooting spree at Emcore Corp. by a man who killed two people and then himself.

"Both events, while years apart, are all too similar," Schultz said. "Both events were completely senseless. Both involved mental illness. Both resulted in the loss of lives of innocent people."

With a police honor guard standing nearby, Schultz and other officers placed a wreath at the corner of Gold and Ash streets just south of the University of New Mexico, where John Hyde shot and killed police officers Michael King and Richard Smith.

"It was a day of senseless tragedy that affected everyone in our city," Mayor Richard Berry said.

Police have said Hyde's murder spree started in the morning when he shot Department of Transportation supervisor Ben Lopez, 54, on Albuquerque's west side, then drove across town and killed motorcycle shop employees Garret Iverson, 22, and David Fisher, 17.

King, 50, and Smith, 46, were killed later as they arrived at Hyde's home for a mental health pickup. On Friday, a musician — standing near the site of the officers' deaths — capped the memorial service with a solemn tribute when he played "Amazing Grace" on a bagpipe.

Three years ago, a judge committed Hyde to 179 years in the state mental hospital.

Laid in the sidewalk at the street corner is a tribute to Officers King and Smith. Schultz said every class of police cadets over the past five years has visited the site before rookie officers take their oath "for the most important lesson of their training."

"We talk of tragedy. We talk of healing. We talk about the cruelties of the world and how sometimes you can do everything right and still the wrong things will happen," Schultz said.