At least three people are dead and several others, including two police officers, were injured Monday in a northwestern New Mexico community before authorities shot and killed the suspect, police said.
The shootings occurred at 11 a.m. in Farmington, New Mexico, a city of more than 45,000 people that serves as a modern-day trading post to the adjacent Navajo Nation reservation and is a supply line and bedroom community to the region’s oil and natural gas industry.
“The details we have are that multiple officers from the Farmington Police Department were involved in an officer-involved shooting,” the city’s police department said in a Facebook post. “One suspect was confronted and killed on scene.”
The statement also said two officers, including one of its own and a State Police officer, were wounded and were in stable condition at the San Juan Regional Medical Center.
Officers from the Farmington Police Department, San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, and the New Mexico State Police were investigating the shooting. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tweeted that agents from Phoenix were responding to Farmington to assist in the investigation.
The shooting led to “preventative lockdowns” of the Farmington Municipal Schools at the request of police, the school district said. The lockdowns were lifted Monday afternoon.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement Monday afternoon that there is no apparent ongoing threat to public safety.
“I am receiving frequent updates on the situation in Farmington as it evolves. I am grateful to law enforcement for their quick response and that there does not appear to be any ongoing threat to public safety,” she said. “I have directed the state to provide whatever support the city and county need as they conduct a thorough investigation and as the community begins to heal. I am praying for the families of the victims, the wounded and the entire community of Farmington following this horrific tragedy.”
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Witnesses describe shooting
Hank Shirley who lives near the scene of the shooting, said he was home watching television when he heard a series of gunshots around 11 a.m. which he described as a prolonged gun battle. Shirley said he did not see what happened but rather identified the distinctive pops as gunfire.
“When I heard that, I told my daughter to get down in the basement and get the baby down in the basement,” Shirley told the Farmington Daily Times, part of the USA TODAY Network.
About four minutes after the gunfire ceased, he said he heard sirens and saw emergency vehicles approaching.
Middle school teacher Nick Akins, whose home is on a street near the crime scene that police locked down, described the neighborhood as a mostly a great place to live, with a mix of family homes, short-term rental apartments, and churches. Seeing Farmington in the national spotlight for yet another mass shooting, particularly one that occurred on his street, was surreal for him.
“You never think it’s going to happen here and all of a sudden, in a tiny little town it comes here,” Akins said. “It’s not like the roughest area in town but it can be. We have great neighbors and rentals, people who come and go. We don’t always know everyone.”
Another U.S. mass shooting
Monday’s incident in New Mexico is the 224th mass shooting in the U.S. so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.
Contributing: Mike Easterling and Jessica Onsurez, Farmington Daily Times; The Associated Press
