New Mexico Mother Charged With Murder: Police Say She Told Her 10-Year-Old Son to Fetch a Gun Before a 16-Year-Old Neighbor Was Shot Dead
Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, arrested Elaina Gomez-Villeda, 40, on November 1 and charged her with murder and other crimes. Police say that on the afternoon of October 31, at an apartment complex in the 200 block of Tennessee Street, a dispute with a neighbouring family over loud music turned into a fight, and that her 10-year-old son — after she told him to retrieve a handgun from their apartment — fired the shot that killed 16-year-old Keinerlein Rangel.
According to the criminal complaint, Gomez-Villeda first knocked on the neighbours' door at about 4 p.m. to ask them to turn down their music; a second argument then escalated into a physical fight involving Gomez-Villeda, Keinerlein and her mother, Susana Rangel. Police say Gomez-Villeda's 10-year-old son also tried to intervene, and that his mother then told him to get the gun from the apartment. The boy returned and fired once, striking Keinerlein in the head and killing her. The boy has not been identified and has not been charged; detectives are working with the district attorney on whether his age could bring criminal charges.
Police say that after the shot, Gomez-Villeda took her son inside, texted her husband "I'm probably going to jail right now," and then called 911. In her interview with detectives she gave a different account, saying she herself fired a gun inside the apartment as Keinerlein's father tried to force his way in. She faces charges including an open count of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, negligently making a firearm accessible to a minor, misdemeanour battery and receiving stolen property (a firearm); police say a revolver recovered outside was listed in a national database as stolen. The charges have not been proven in court.
Police say the investigation is continuing.
Source: Albuquerque Police Department
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：新墨西哥州 Albuquerque 市区天际线资料图。CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, file photo. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
