Sheriff: Deputies shot man to rescue woman

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies shot and killed a man holding a knife to a his mother's throat Wednesday afternoon.

News 13 has learned the dead man has been identified as 44 year old Sam Marquez.  The woman he held hostage was his mother.

"I think it was very clear that the victim of the suspect was truly in danger," said Sheriff Dan Houston. "It's my understanding the knife actually made a cut on the neck. Our deputies responded, I believe, in the only way they could."

The woman was treated for a minor wound.

Houston laid out this timeline for the incident:

At around 12:30 p.m. a caller to 911 reported a man with a knife holding a woman hostage in a home in the 300 block of Granada Court SW.

Deputies arriving at the home were able to talk with the man who remained inside. At some point the man came out of the house holding the woman with the knife at her throat.

Deputies kept up the conversation but were unable to talk the man into dropping the knife.

When the man started dragging the woman back into the house about 1 p.m., two deputies, both fearing for the woman's safety, fired at the man. It's not known how man rounds were fired or how many bullets hit the man, but he died at the scene.

The SWAT team was on its way to the scene but had not arrived at the time of the shooting.

Houston said multiple agencies are now investigating the shooting and the events that led to it.

The home is south of Arenal Road and just west of Rio Grande High School, which was briefly placed on lockdown after the shooting.

The sheriff has not said where Marquez was hit or how many times.  On online check of Marquez' court records show 25 years of crimes -- ranging from shoplifting and drugs to armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.