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

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 58-year-old man was shot and killed in Albuquerque last week after police say he attacked another man, who then shot him.

But the Albuquerque Police Department has not released much more information on the incident, which happened early in the morning Aug. 5 near an apartment complex at 2428 Rice NW.

The man who fired — who was not identified by police — has not been charged because police are doing a self-defense investigation, according to Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Tanner Tixier.

Police said that when they arrived at the apartment complex, an injured man told them he had been attacked by a few other people. He shot and killed one of them — later identified as 58-year-old Clifford Aragon — with a handgun, and another attacker fled, Tixier said. That person still hadn’t been found by Wednesday afternoon.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

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

Police found Aragon lying on the ground near a motorcycle with blood near his abdomen, and a gun at his side. He died soon after at the hospital. Police haven’t given any more details about what the argument was over, or how the fight ensued. A police report has not been filed.

“If it doesn’t turn out that it was self defense … then yes, he could be charged,” Tixier said.

At least one neighbor said he thinks police should release more information about the shooting to the public.

Tixier said the slow release of information is partly because homicide detectives have been slammed with cases recently, including the recent manhunt for a man who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, wounding three other women and shooting himself when police found him in a northwest Albuquerque neighborhood.

Aragon’s sister, Diane Lopez, said she was scheduled to meet with police Thursday. She said she didn’t know any details of the argument or what happened because she hasn’t talked to police yet.

Aragon grew up in Albuquerque’s South Valley, was an Army veteran and worked at an Antonito, Colo., hotel, according to Lopez. He had two kids and four grandchildren. He would often visit Albuquerque to see her and his mother and other family, she said.

“He was always the dad of the family,” Lopez said. “He was always joking … he made us laugh. He’d take his shirt off for you, if someone needed help, he’d go help them. Whoever it was. He’s going to be missed for sure.”

Neighbor Marcos Ruiz said though shots aren’t uncommon in the neighborhood near Rio Grande and I-40, it still is unsettling, especially because he has a 4-month-old baby.

“We weren’t really expecting it … it was right there, now that we have a baby it’s kind of trippy right now,” Ruiz said.