Albuquerque (New Mexico, US): An 18-year-old gunman stalked through a New Mexico neighbourhood on Monday firing randomly at bystanders, houses and cars, killing three people and wounding six before police shot him dead outside a church, authorities said.

The late-morning shooting spree unfolded in a residential area of Farmington, New Mexico, a major retail centre and regional hub for the fossil energy industry about 290 km northwest of Albuquerque.

Police responded “to find a chaotic scene where a male subject was actively firing upon individuals in that neighborhood,” Baric Crum, deputy chief of operations for the Farmington Police Department, said in a news briefing hours later.

Three civilians were killed and six people were wounded, including two officers struck in an exchange of gunfire with the suspect before he was fatally shot by police, according to Farmington police spokesperson Shanice Gonzales.

She said by telephone that the suspect had roamed about a quarter of a mile on foot firing on bystanders indiscriminately before the rampage came to an end outside the church where he was confronted by law enforcement. No motive was readily apparent, police said.

“At this point it appears to be purely random,” Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said in a video message posted on his department’s Facebook page, calling the incident “devastating.” Seemingly taking aim at “whatever entered his head to shoot at,” the suspect opened fire from at least three weapons, one of them an AR-15-style rifle, Hebbe said.

“At least six houses and three cars were shot in the course of the event.”

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2023