Albuquerque mom allegedly told her 10-year-old to ‘retrieve a gun from their apartment’ during a fight over loud music that left a 16-year-old dead
Elaina Gomez-Villeda faces serious charges after a dispute over loud music at an Albuquerque apartment complex ended with a 16-year-old girl dead. The incident occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday in the 200 block of Tennessee Street, and jail records show Gomez-Villeda is now in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
The situation reportedly began when Gomez-Villeda went to her neighbors’ apartment to ask them to turn down their music, according to KRQE. Police said the request sparked a physical altercation between Gomez-Villeda, neighbor Susana Rangel, and Susana’s 16-year-old daughter, Keinerlein Rangel, who had tried to intervene. During the confrontation, her 10-year-old son also tried to get involved.
According to a criminal complaint, his mother then allegedly told him to “retrieve a gun from their apartment.” Police allege the boy followed these instructions, walked back outside with the firearm, and fired once, killing Keinerlein. The boy has not been publicly identified, as he has not been charged with a crime.
Officers say she later walked out of the apartment holding a gun
After the shooting, Gomez-Villeda and her son went back inside their home, police said. Responding officers reportedly heard a gunshot from within the apartment shortly after arriving at the scene. When Gomez-Villeda emerged holding a gun, an officer fired at her but missed, and the rounds struck a pillar. She eventually dropped the weapon, and police took her into custody.
Gomez-Villeda provided a different account of the events during her interview with police. She claimed that she was the person who fired the shot inside the apartment, as she believed the father of the victim was trying to force his way inside and had broken a window. However, she also told detectives that she called 911 during the incident.
She said she feared for her safety in the moments after the shooting. “I thought we were gonna die,” Elaina Gomez-Villeda told detectives. Police said she also told investigators that she texted her husband during the event, writing, “I’m probably going to jail right now.”
Police said she faces an open count of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The remaining charges include child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, negligently making a firearm accessible to a minor, misdemeanor battery, and receiving a stolen firearm. However, authorities are still looking into the case and have not said whether they will charge the 10-year-old boy.
New Mexico wrote its gun storage law after another Albuquerque student was killed
The firearm access charge comes from the Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act, which Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed in 2023. The law is named after Bennie Hargrove, a 13-year-old who was fatally shot at Washington Middle School in Albuquerque by a classmate using his father’s gun.
Negligently leaving a gun accessible to a minor is a misdemeanor under the act, according to the governor’s office. It becomes a fourth-degree felony if the child causes another person’s death or great bodily harm. Prosecutors in other states have also taken parents to trial over shootings carried out by their children.
Michigan jurors convicted Ethan Crumbley’s parents of involuntary manslaughter, and a Georgia jury convicted the Apalachee shooter’s father earlier this year. Any decision on the 10-year-old in Albuquerque could be complicated, as the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention lists no minimum age for juvenile court jurisdiction in New Mexico.
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