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

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Shortly after midnight Thursday, police say, a 5-year-old boy was injured in a volley of gunfire that struck his family’s home in a quiet neighborhood of modern homes in southwest Albuquerque.

The boy was shot in the back. He was still in the hospital recovering Thursday afternoon, said Celina Espinoza, a spokeswoman for the Albuquerque Police Department. She did not identify him.

Officer Brian Shannon, an APD spokesman, said that around 12:15 a.m. officers were called to the 500 block of Whispering SW, near Bridge and Unser, after several rounds were fired into a house.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

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

He said that while they were on the way to the house, they were told a child had been struck by one of the bullets. They pulled up to a one-story home with large windows, a garage and ivy snaking up the walls by the entrance.

“When officers arrived on the scene, they confirmed a child had a gunshot wound to the back and rescue was notified,” Shannon wrote in an email. “Rescue arrived on the scene and transported the child to a local hospital.”

At least nine bullet holes could be seen scattered around the front window next to the entrance. It’s unclear what room was shot into or where the child was when he was shot.

Shannon said no one else was injured.

Police had no one in custody Thursday evening, but they said they were looking for two or three suspects who fled the scene in a white two-door vehicle.

They didn’t say why investigators believe the shooting occurred.

A neighbor, who gave her name only as Alex, said she heard two gunshots, then several more. She said that after the shooters left, she and her neighbor, who is a firefighter, both ran outside.

“We didn’t hear anything, and we thought maybe no one was home,” Alex said. “Then all of a sudden we hear screaming, a lot of screaming, from everyone in the house.”

She said they went to the house and offered to help. Inside, the little boy had been shot in the back and “looked really scared,” she said.

After help arrived, a “fireman was able to put pressure on his wound and everything quickly,” Alex said. “He got everyone calmed down.”

Another neighbor, Michelle Sena, said she and her husband were watching a movie when they heard about 10 gunshots that sounded very close by.

She said that about an hour after the shooting, officers came to talk to her and asked her if she had surveillance cameras set up. She did, and she said two shadowy figures were visible walking back and forth on the street, then a car driving away.

Sena said a large family lives in the house and they are always friendly when she sees them working on their yard or washing their cars. She said the shooting has made her apprehensive about her four children, ages 6 to 13, going outside.

“That’s our biggest concern, hoping they catch whoever did it,” Sena said. “I feel bad for that little boy.”