ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A suspected serial killer who was living in our midst for the past 30 years had a run-in with police months before his confession to multiple murders. Before the Albuquerque Police Department says Paul Apodaca waltzed into a police station and confessed to at least three murders, he had a standoff with police and they had to take him down with force.

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Apodaca: “Deadly force, sir.”
Officer: “What’s that?”
Apodaca: “Deadly force.”
Officer: “Sir, can you please put the knives away.”
Officer: “Please, put the knives away. Okay? I’m not playing with you, bro. Put the knives away.”
Apodaca: “Kill me.”
Officer: “No.”

In April of last year, he was just Paul Apodaca, a troubled middle-aged man with a long criminal history living amongst us. Police had swarmed his family’s home near the Albuquerque International Sunport after his aunt called, saying he was punching her in the face. As the hour-long standoff was going on, officers snuck around the back and climbed into a bedroom, rescuing the aunt and a 96-year-old relative.

Seconds after bringing them down the ladder, Apodaca unexpectedly comes out the back door. He was unarmed but uncooperative. Apodaca pled guilty to one charge in the case and did a year in jail. He was released from jail this past spring.

Over the summer, he walked into a police station where investigators say he confessed to killing a teenage girl and two young women. They were all shot or stabbed in public within months of each other back in the late 1980s. Police say he seemingly chose them at random, followed them and killed them because he hated the way women never went for the ‘guys,’ like him.

According to police, the 53-year-old confessed because he said he’d found god.