Couple charged after teen shot outside party
A couple is behind bars after police say they were involved in a shooting outside a West Side party early Sunday morning in which a 14-year-old boy was shot in the back as he ran from the gunfire.
Miguel Nuñez, 25, and Ashley Salazar, 23, are charged with aggra- vated battery, aggravated assault and child abuse. Salazar is facing additional charges, including shooting from a motor vehicle. Police say she fired the shot that hit the teen.
Police say the couple’s children — ages 7 and 4 — were in the backseat when the shooting occurred.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:
Officers responded around 3:30 a.m. to a shooting on Desert Breeze SW, near Arenal and Unser. They found a teen who had been shot in the back and multiple shell casings.
Bernalillo County deputies stopped the couple after Salazar called 911 saying her husband had been shot. Nuñez was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his ankle and Salazar was detained.
Salazar told police the couple was leaving Nuñez’s parents’ home with their children and a group of people were blocking the street. Salazar said when Nuñez asked them to move, they opened fire and she shot back several times in self defense.
Witnesses told police a different story; that Nuñez got into a dispute with a group of men outside the home when both sides started firing at each other. The teen who was shot said Nuñez had pulled up to the house saying “this is my hood” and “talking (expletive).” The teen told police that, shortly after, he was in the backyard when gunfire erupted out front and people started hopping fences into an alley. The teen said when he hopped the fence, he saw the woman roll down the window and shoot at him. He told police he started running away and was hit in the back. Another bullet whizzed “by his head” after he fell to the ground.