Cop kills gunman after I-40 pursuit

LAGUNA PUEBLO, N.M. (KRQE) - A police pursuit that began with gunshots in Albuquerque ended with more gunfire about 40 miles west of the city when an officer shot and killed the suspect Wednesday afternoon.

No one else was reported injured in separate shootings in northwest Albuquerque or in the crash of the suspect's car on Interstate 40 at Laguna Pueblo.

The suspect's name and the circumstances that led an Albuquerque Police Department officer to shoot him have not yet been released.

Albuquerque police report the incident began about 1 p.m. with a 911 call saying a shooting was in progress on McMahon Boulevard NW near Golf Course Road. Responding officers found two women in a car who had been shot at and missed.

A witness followed a yellow Mustang seen leaving the area at high speed but turned back after more shots were fired.

An APD officer soon spotted the Mustang on Universe Boulevard NW chasing it onto I-40 and west to the Rio Puerco where New Mexico State Police took over the pursuit.

That chase ended near mile marker 108 on Laguna Pueblo although it's not yet clear whether the man lost control of the Mustang on his own or was somehow stopped by officers. Aerial video from KRQE News 13's Skyranger showed the Mustang stopped in the median lane with a dual-trailer FedEx truck jammed against its rear bumper.

"I was running about 76, 77 mile an hour," truck driver Hollis Gifford told KRQE News 13. "So, he come around us, I'd say anywhere from 110-130."

After crashing the suspect ran north into lightly populated scrub and across the BNSF Railway tracks into a field.

It was there News 13 learned and State Police later confirmed that an APD officer shot and killed him.

The crash and investigation shut down 10 miles of westbound I-40 from about 2 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.  During the closure police diverted traffic to State Road 124--old U.S. 66--around the scene and through Laguna Pueblo.

A statement from APD said numerous people at Lovelace Westside Hospital witnessed the initial shooting and that a woman was treated there for a broken ankle and cuts to her head.

Whether that woman was the target of the gunfire that started the incident is not clear.