FARMINGTON, N.M. (KRQE) – Investigators have identified the three deceased victims, the shooter, and the two officers injured in Farmington during a mass shooting Monday. Farmington Police say the shooter killed three elderly women and wounded six others in what they believe was a “purely random” attack.
Police say Shirley Voita, 79, Melody Ivie, 73, and Gwendolyn Schofield, 97, were killed in the shooting. Two of the victims died at the scene, while a third victim died at the hospital.
Farmington Police Sergeant Rachel Discenza and New Mexico State Police Officer Andreas Stamatiadis are among the wounded victims expected to survive their injuries. Stamatiadis has been treated and released from the hospital, while Discenza is said to be recovering from a wound to her pelvis. Four other victims who survived their injuries have not been identified.
“This is such a tragic event, it’s overwhelming to the senses,” said Farmington Police Deputy Chief Kyle Dowdy. “Many of us were on scene, and when you encounter something of such magnitude that’s… I mean, it shocks your senses.”
Farmington Police say the shooter is 18-year-old Beau Wilson of Farmington. The high school student was said to be staying at a home near N. Dustin Road and Ute Street, where the shooting began around 10:56 a.m. Monday, across what police described as a “nearly quarter-mile crime scene.”
At a news conference Tuesday, police say investigators are still looking into a motive. However, they believe the shooting was random, as they say, everyone who was wounded was shot while passing through the neighborhood.
“The amount of violence and brutality that these innocent people faced is something that is unconscionable to me,” Dowdy said. “And I don’t care what age you are, I don’t care what else is going on in your life, to kill three innocent elderly women that were just absolutely in no position to defend themselves– is always going to be a tragedy.”
Police say it was roughly 8 minutes between the first 911 call and the suspect being killed by responding officers. At that time, police say the suspect fired shots from at least three weapons including an “AR-style rifle,” killing three people. The rifle was said to have been legally purchased by the suspect, while investigators believe two other weapons he used were taken from family members.
In total, at least six others were wounded, including the two police officers. In a news release Tuesday afternoon, a spokeswoman from Farmington’s San Juan Regional Medical Center said the six wounded victims were all “treated and released.”
“The event is difficult to understand,” Chief Hebbe said in a video posted to Facebook Monday evening, hours after the shooting. “We are doing the best that we can [to] piece through [evidence], talk with family members of the suspect, piece through what was going on, look through the evidence to figure out what the motivation was.”
