.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Copyright © 2016 Albuquerque Journal

Anthony Garcia and his wife, Stephanie, were picking up their children from elementary school Thursday, just like they do every day. The last thing on their minds was getting into a shootout with another driver.

The Garcias were driving to Sierra Vista Elementary School near Paradise and Unser around 1:30 p.m. when, deputies say, another driver, enraged over a slight on the road, chased them through a neighborhood and to the school. After a confrontation, he opened fire as the Garcias drove off, hitting their car, according to deputies.

The driver continued to follow the Garcias and fired again, striking the car a total of five times and the school’s wall three times, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court late Thursday.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

................................................................

Garcia then pulled out his own gun and fired back as his wife called 911. No one was injured in the shooting. Deputies later arrested Vincent Lobato, 28, whom they tracked down based on the license plate number given by the Garcias.

Sierra Vista, which dismisses its students at 1:57 p.m., was put on lockdown due to the gunfire. Albuquerque Public Schools officials wouldn’t say whether any children were outside the school during the shooting.

According to the complaint, Garcia slowed down to turn right onto Alder off southbound Unser NW and the driver behind him almost crashed into his car.

In an interview Friday, Garcia said the next thing he knew, the driver of the white four-door Buick behind him was honking and gesturing obscenely at him.

The driver, later identified as Lobato, followed Garcia’s SUV to the school, according to the complaint. Deputies say they are still looking for two passengers who were also in the car.

Garcia said he stopped in front of the school and the driver pulled up next to him and got out of the car.

“I got out of my vehicle and said, ‘What’s going on?’ because I don’t know what the big deal is,” Garcia said. “Then he pulled the gun out and put it in my face.”

Garcia said he got back in his car and drove off.

That’s when he heard gunfire.

One of the bullets flew through the back windshield, through the headrest of the passenger seat and out the front, just inches from Stephanie Garcia’s head, according to the complaint. Others struck the body of the car and the nearby school, about 40 feet from the building’s entrance.

The complaint said both vehicles drove west though a nearby neighborhood, and then headed back toward the school. At the intersection of Avenida la Barranca and Paseo del Norte, across from the school, Lobato fired again, according to the complaint. Garcia said he was afraid he or his wife would be killed so he returned fire.

“He shot at me and that’s when I pulled out my gun and shot two bullets at him,” he said.

The complaint says Lobato left the area, while the Garcias returned to the school.

School officials contacted as many parents as possible about the situation, but they were unable to alert everyone because of out-of-date contact information, according to a letter from the principal, Monica Garciasalas.

Garciasalas wrote that the safety of the students is of the utmost importance.

“I want to thank you for your patience as we released students to parents/guardians in an effort to assure they got home safely,” she wrote in the letter.

Garcia said he hasn’t told his children about the shooting, and he doesn’t think they need to know.

“Mom and Dad are safe, thanks to God, and that’s all my kids need to know,” he said. “This was just something stupid.”

Deputies arrested Lobato after running the license plate provided by the Garcias, according to the complaint.

When they asked Garcia how positive he was that the picture on Lobato’s driver’s license was the man who shot at them, he said, “One thousand percent.”

Lobato was booked into the county jail Thursday night. He is charged with two counts of assault with intent to commit a violent felony, shooting from a motor vehicle, and criminal damage to property over $1,000.

At a felony first appearance Friday, Judge Edward Benavidez kept Lobato’s bond at $100,000 cash or surety.

Lobato has never been charged with a felony, but he did have one prior violent arrest on his record, according to the background investigator for pretrial services, who did not give details. The investigator said Lobato had lived in Rio Rancho for seven years and moved to Albuquerque with his wife and children about 18 months ago. He said he is a barber at MDK Barber Shop in Rio Rancho.

Regardless of Lobato’s relatively clean past and strong community ties, Judge Benavidez said he was worried about his threat to the public.

“The contents of the criminal complaint – the randomness, the violence that is alleged in the interviews – represents an extreme danger to the community,” he said.

The shooting comes a little more than five months after another road rage shooting claimed the life of a 4-year-old girl.

Lilly Garcia (no relation to Anthony and Stephanie Garcia) was shot and killed after another driver opened fire on her father’s truck on I-40 after he picked his children up from school. Tony Torrez has been charged with murder in that shooting.

Anthony Garcia said after the chaos ended, he remembered Lilly and realized how lucky he and his wife were.

“During what’s going on, nothing’s going through your mind other than to get away from this guy,” he said. “After that, I did think of that little girl. We were very, very lucky.”

Digital editor Robert Browman and Journal staff writer Nicole Perez contributed to this report.