After being accosted by police responding to an active shooter event in New Mexico, an armed teenager was shot and killed.
The most recent mass shooting in America involved an 18-year-old gunman who left at least three people dead and six others injured, including two police officers. According to authorities, the incident in northwest New Mexico came to an end when the lone suspect was killed by responding policemen.
In the Four Corners region, where the state boundaries of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado meet, in the city of Farmington, which has a population of around 46,000, the killings took place on Monday. Other than the shooter’s age and gender, police withheld all other information.
At 11:15 a.m., local schools were closed as police responded to shooting on a street lined with homes and churches. According to Farmington police chief Steve Hebbe, the gunman was shot shortly after the first officer got on the scene. Nearly two hours later, once local authorities determined that there were no other suspects implicated, the lockdown order was removed.
Hebbe claimed the shooter appeared to be firing at whatever “entered his head” without aiming for any particular people, houses, or churches. Using at least three firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle, the suspect shot three cars as well as at least six houses.
At the San Juan Regional Medical Center, the two hurt officers—one from the Farmington Police Department and the other from the New Mexico State Police—are both in stable condition.
The shooting in Yuma, Arizona, which left two people dead and five injured, happened two days before to the tragedy in Farmington. At least seven people were hurt and eight people were killed earlier this month in a shooting at a mall in Allen, Texas, not including the shooter.
According to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today, there have been more than 550 mass killings in the US since 2006, defined as occurrences in which four or more victims perished. More than 80% of the 2,880 fatalities in those occurrences were caused by gun violence.
The horrible violence that took place in Farmington today deeply disturbs me, said New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in a statement on Monday. “I am praying for the victims’ families, the injured, and the entire Farmington community in the wake of this terrible tragedy.” She continued by stating that her government “will not stop fighting the epidemic of gun violence from every angle possible.”
