A 21-year-old man has been arrested for shooting his stepmother during a charter school graduation ceremony, police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said.
The shooting occurred shortly after 5pm on Wednesday at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Police he said they were called to the scene for what was initially believed to be an active shooter, but when officers arrived, they “discovered it was a single shot fired by an individual.”
A woman was injured and taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Cristian Bencomo, 21, was arrested and booked on charges of aggravated assault causing great bodily harm, aggravated assault and two counts of unlawful possession of a deadly weapon, online arrest records show. It is unclear whether he has obtained a lawyer.
Police said a graduation was taking place at the Southwest Secondary Learning Center. The stepmother was attending her son’s graduation. When her stepson arrived, she began hugging him and he allegedly pulled out a gun and shot her in the neck, according to authorities.
“As you can imagine, there was a lot of chaos at the time. It will take detectives a while to track down potential witnesses,” police said at a news conference.
The motive for the shooting remains unclear.
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