A Family Tragedy in Albuquerque

Shocking:

A little before 9 a.m. Monday, a woman was shot multiple times in the parking lot of a Northeast Albuquerque strip mall next to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy, a massage parlor and a chiropractor’s office.

Albuquerque Police Department detectives quickly narrowed in on a suspect – her estranged husband Matthew Montoya – and hours later shot and killed him in a driveway in a Sandia foothills neighborhood.

...Interviews with several witnesses and evidence from the scene quickly led detectives to suspect her estranged husband was responsible, Smathers said.

He said detectives learned that after his wife was shot, 52-year-old Montoya went to their child’s school, Holy Child Catholic School, in Tijeras and tried to pick up the child.

“Diligent school staff were aware of family conflict between family members and denied the suspect any access to his minor child,” Smathers said. “Thankfully, they did not release (the child).”

He said detectives continued investigating and determined Montoya was driving a silver minivan. Detectives consulted with the district attorney and received permission to arrest Montoya.

Around 1:13 p.m. detectives with the Investigative Services Division found him in the silver van in the driveway of a house on Chelwood Drive NE. “Detectives approached that minivan to make the arrest that had been approved by the district attorney, and an officer-involved shooting took place during that contact,” Smathers said. “The suspect is deceased on the scene.”

He said a gun was found in the van but the detectives involved in the shooting had not yet been interviewed, so he could not say what led the detectives to shoot Montoya. He said he could confirm that more than one detective was involved, but he would not say how many were.