Man in fatal APD shooting named

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The gunman killed by police officers Tuesday night is believed to have ties to a white-supremacist group, Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

That man has been identified as 41-year-old Parrish Dennison.

Three officers shot at Dennison as he ran toward them at about 8:30 p.m. in a busy commercial district in Albuquerque's Uptown.  It's not known how many times he was hit, but he later died at UNM Hospital.

Schultz said he would only identify the officers by their last names for their protection because Dennison is believed to be connected to a white-supremacist group. Police have a female accomplice already in custody and, police are searching for  a second man who escaped .

The officers have been identified by their last names, Aragon, a 12-year veteran, Sedler, a 16-year veteran, and Perdue, an 18-year veteran of APD, the chief said.

Events began unfolding about 6 p.m. Tuesday when a woman went into the Music-Go-Round store in the 7100 block of Menaul Boulevard NE and allegedly tried to sell back items believed to be stolen from a customer's home.  That customer warned clerks to be on the lookout for the items, and when they showed, up, store clerks called police.

"I had kind of approached her and told her that the property was stolen and the police were on their way," said Dave Tvedt, general manager of Music-Go-Round.  "I'd taken her cell phone, and just kind of asked her to hang out and be cooperative."

Tvedt said the woman was cooperative.

The woman was detained, but two men who appeared to be with the woman got away.  One ran from a black pickup truck while the other took off in the truck and got away.

Officers chasing the running suspect said he point a loaded .22 single-action handgun at them several times as he ran about a block west on Menaul and hid near the Sheraton Uptown Albuquerque hotel and Chili's Bar and Grill.

That brought out the APD SWAT team leading to a 90-minute lockdown of the area as officers closed in on the armed man.

Police said the man ran through traffic, pointed a gun at officers from on top of a building, and at one point hid in a bush.

When police came after him, they said he ran toward officers with a gun in his hand, and that's when the three officers opened fire.

Schultz said the man's gun was loaded and he appeared to be prepared to shoot.

"The gun was in a fully cocked position as it is now displayed, and the suspect was holding it in his hand with his finger identifiably on the trigger of the weap.on," Schultz said.

The name of the woman in custody has not been released.  

Police said the third suspect appeared to be in a black two-door S-10 Chevrolet.

The officers involved in the shooting are on standard paid leave during the investigation.