An 18-year-old gunman opened fire on a residential street in Farmington, N.M., on Monday morning, killing three people before the police arrived and killed the suspect, the authorities said. Nine other people, including two officers, were injured.
The authorities received several reports of shots fired near North Dustin Avenue and East Navajo Street just before 11 a.m., Deputy Chief Baric Crum of the Farmington Police said at a news conference late Monday afternoon. “Officers responded to the area to find a chaotic scene where a male subject was actively firing upon individuals in that neighborhood,” Chief Crumb said.
Four police officers managed to stop the gunman, Chief Crum said. He said that the two injured police officers — one from the Farmington Police Department, and a state police officer — were both in a “stable condition” at the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington. The conditions of the seven others who were injured were not immediately known, and the authorities did not release the names of any victims or the suspect.
The motive for the shooting remained unclear. Chief Crum said it was not immediately known whether the suspect had any criminal history, or why he was in the neighborhood.
The shooting is being investigated by the Farmington Police Department, San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and the New Mexico State Police. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also responded, its Phoenix field office said.
“There are no other known threats at this time,” the police said.
Farmington Municipal Schools were placed under a preventive lockdown after 11 a.m., which was lifted about two hours later, the school system said.
Farmington, situated near the Navajo Nation, is home to about 46,000 people. The city, about 140 miles from Albuquerque in the rural northwestern corner of the state, serves as a commercial hub for nearby oil producing areas as well as much of northwestern New Mexico.
Last month, officers with the Farmington Police Department shot and killed an armed man while responding to a domestic violence call at the wrong home. In 2017, in the nearby town of Aztec, a former student at Aztec High School fatally shot two students at the school before killing himself.
Simon Romero contributed reporting.