More information released on timeline of UNM dorm shooting

Yahoo

a day ago

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – More information is coming to light about how long it took police to figure out what was going on after a teen was found shot to death inside a UNM dorm Friday morning. It wasn't the shooting that the police first responded to.
The first indication that something was wrong was an alarm in a hall, some distance from where the shooting took place. 'It was a very dynamic situation. There were different, multiple calls, and we didn't know at the time whether they were connected or not, so that had to be vetted. So yeah, it did take a minute to figure out what was going on,' said Chief Joseph Silva with the UNM Police Department.
Investigators say around 1:30 a.m. Friday, UNM Police responded to an alarm at Mesa Vista Hall, finding broken windows and blood. Another red flag came an hour later when UNM Hospital called the police, saying a 19-year-old said he was shot somewhere on campus but wouldn't say where.
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Shortly after that, between 2:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m., investigators say UNM police were sweeping nearby buildings, including the Casas Del Rio dorms. That's when officers found 14-year-old Michael Lamotte shot to death inside a room in the Gila Building, with no other witnesses to the shooting around.
Around 3:30 a.m., UNM sent out its first Lobo Alert, warning people to stay away from Casas Del Rio, but they say it still wasn't immediately clear what was going on. 'We were looking at when we need to issue an alert, and what information we have that we can issue a valid alert,' said Chief Silva. Several calls were coming into our dispatch center, so we were trying to vet those out to see if they were connected or not.'
UNM police called for investigative help about 15 minutes after their Lobo Alert went out. About an hour later, state police arrived on scene to take over by 4:45 a.m.
A couple of hours after that, the shelter-in-place Lobo Alert went out, warning people about an at-large, armed suspect. State police say they ID'd John Fuentes as the suspect between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and arrested him in Los Lunas by 2:30 p.m.
Among the 911 calls was the mother of Lamotte, who was with his stepbrother playing video games in a 19-year-old UNM student's dorm room at Casas Del Rio. In a statement sent by Lamotte's attorneys, they accused UNM of not responding in a timely manner. She said the dispatcher referred her to campus police, whom she called, saying she believed her son may have been a victim of a shooting. But she said hours passed before police arrived at the dorm room.
The statement went on to say, 'The lengthy delay demonstrates that the incident was not handled with the appropriate level of seriousness demanded by an active shooter.' The victim's mother also said police failed to inform her of her son's death and she learned it from local media while she waited at the dorms to hear about her son's condition.
The mother of the accused shooter called KRQE News 13, saying she also called 911. She said at the time she didn't know about the shooting, but was concerned because she thought her son was going to overdose on drugs.
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