Updated: 06/02/2014 5:36 PM | Created: 06/02/2014 5:27 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
Albuquerque police are still investigating the case of a city woman who was shot in the face—through the windshield—while she was driving on Paseo del Norte near Golf Course Friday evening.
The victim is recovering at home, but detectives aren’t sure whether it was a premeditated shooting or a random act of violence. One thing is for sure: It could have been much worse if the bullet had struck her from a slightly different angle or at closer range.
The bullet punctured the windshield and tore through the woman’s nose, lodging into her jaw. Somehow, she managed to safely pull off the busy highway onto the shoulder, where witnesses saw her bleeding from the head and called 911. One witness did see somebody on the nearby pedestrian overpass, but clues were in short supply Friday night when Sgt. Shawn Casaus briefed reporters.
“There were some footprints in the area,” Casaus said. “We don’t have any suspect information. We did utilize several resources that APD has. We used Open Space units. We also used air support in trying to locate anybody who might be in the area or anybody who might be straggling around.”
Here’s the trouble with the premeditation theory: If the shooter was on the overpass, he was probably armed with a handgun. Below him would be a stream of cars at rush hour, traveling 45 to 50 miles an hour. He (or she) would have to select a fast-moving target, aim, pull the trigger and hope the bullet hit the proper target. If the gun was a semiautomatic, the shooter would have to carefully retrieve the spent casing that would have ejected from the gun. That’s a pretty tall order.
But the trouble with the random theory—It means there is someone out there with a gun who’s willing to kill just for the thrill of shooting into traffic.