Four young men were playing video games in a dorm room at the University of New Mexico early Friday morning when one of them opened fire on the others — killing a 14-year-old and wounding a 19-year-old.
State Police Chief Troy Weisler, in a briefing Friday night, said the alleged shooter, John Fuentes, 18, had been arrested by officers during a traffic stop in Los Lunas hours earlier. Weisler said police had tracked Fuentes to the area using license plate readers.
Weisler did not identify those killed or give a motive.
“At some point, for reasons that we are still investigating, the suspect began shooting the other occupants,” he said.
Weisler said Fuentes will be charged with an open count of murder, along with “additional charges” in the shooting. Fuentes will be booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center.
UNM Police Chief Joseph Silva said the dorm room where the shooting occurred was at Casas del Rio, a student housing center at 420 Redondo Drive, north of Johnson Field. He said it was leased by one of the four people who were there when the gunfire erupted.
It is unclear if any of the young men were students.
Weisler said around 1:36 a.m. UNM police responded to an alarm and found a broken window and blood but nothing else. Then, around 2:30 a.m., the wounded 19-year-old showed up at UNM Hospital with at least one gunshot wound.
Officers traced the incident back to the dorm room, where they found the 14-year-old boy dead. Weisler said Fuentes and the other young man had fled the scene by then.
Weisler said police were still investigating the incident and would release more details later. “We know that the situation is very alarming and the public wants answers as quickly as possible,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it’s a scene we’ve seen all too often,” Weisler said when asked about juvenile crime in the city. “It’s something that we are working to address, but I do think that we could use some additional tools to address that ... and in the meantime, we will do the best that we can with the tools that we have.”
At the time of the shooting, nearby dorms were filled with around 400 incoming students who stayed overnight on campus as part of orientation.
The students in orientation were told to shelter in place in Hokona Hall and another dorm while police spent hours combing the campus for the suspect.
Outside the Casas del Rio dorm building Friday morning, family members sat in a State Police car awaiting news of their loved ones. They’d woken at 3 a.m. to the news that their relatives were involved in a shooting on UNM’s campus and came to the scene. Since then, it’d been a waiting game, they told the Journal.
Moments later, the otherwise quiet campus was filled with wails from the family members, who gripped each other tightly as officers looked on.
‘Especially distressing’
Nearby, a student stood on the corner of Johnson Field surveying the scene.
“It’s wild,” Patrick Castillo said. “This is the second shooting while I’ve been in school here.”
It’s situations like these, Castillo said, that motivated him to transfer to New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro next semester.
“I don’t think UNM does anything about it,” Castillo said. “It’s extremely, extremely lax here.”
For some students, this isn’t their first encounter with gun violence in an academic setting. Tyler VanDenburg, 18, who lives in a dorm nearby, was a student at Atrisco Heritage Academy in 2023 when a 16-year-old was killed while a group of teens were playing with guns in the school’s parking lot after a basketball game.
“My mom was always like put your binder in front of yourself and your backpack on your back so it’s like protection,” VanDenburg said. “She was just a little nervous (after that).”
UNM buses transported 400 students from residence halls to the Yale Parking Structure, where parents were lined up waiting to meet their children after orientation was abruptly cancelled.
Tom Gabbett, whose daughter was attending orientation, said he was frustrated at the scattered communication from UNM. Parents were notified via email, but told the Journal they felt the school should have sent text messages because they would be more likely to see those first.
“My concern is that they were not giving news out to anybody around,” he said. “I know it was an active crime scene, but say something to the parents at least.”
Gabbett arrived at the campus around 8:45 a.m. for parent orientation. Parents told the Journal they were to learn about campus safety from UNM police as part of the orientation Friday. Gabbett said when he arrived to the building where the new students were staying overnight, the doors were locked and police tape was wrapped around the building. He said he was concerned about what he felt was UNM not showing enough caution following the shooting.
“It’s an active situation, but I got here this morning and walked over to the Student Union Building and nobody stopped me,” he said. “Nobody questioned me about where I was going and nobody told me to leave.”
UNM will provide “support and guidance” at a later date for new students whose registration process was disrupted by the shooting, according to an email from José Villar, director of college outreach at UNM.
“We understand this incident may be especially distressing for new students and their families who are here this week for orientation,” UNM President Garnett Stokes said in the email. “We want to assure everyone that we are fully committed to your safety and well-being. Future orientation activities will continue, with additional support in place.”