APD Arrests Teen, Completes Trio of Arrests from 2025 Robbery-Murder

Albuquerque –

Detectives from the Albuquerque Police Department took 17-year-old Johnathan Gurrola into custody today, completing the arrests of three teenagers charged in the May 18, 2025, murder of a man during an attempted robbery.

Homicide detectives had previously arrested Heriberto Hernandez and Brayan Gurrola, who were both 17 at the time of their arrests, in connection with the murder. Brayan Gurrola and Johnathan Gurrola are cousins.

Homicide detectives determined that the teens met 19-year-old Luis Ortiz on May 18, 2025, in a parking lot at Rio Grande Blvd. and Aspen Ave. N.W., to buy alcohol. Brayan Gurrola, 17, later told detectives that he had contacted Ortiz through Instagram in the early hours of May 18 to arrange the purchase.

A group that included Brayan Gurrola, Heriberto Hernandez, and Johnathan Gurrola, both 16 at the time of the homicide, drove a red Chevrolet Silverado pickup to meet Ortiz at the parking lot of the Burger King and Starbucks on Rio Grande Blvd. The truck arrived around 2:30 a.m. Witnesses reported a confrontation between the truck’s occupants and a man in a car, later identified as Ortiz. A ShotSpotter activation recorded 10 gunshots at the scene at 2:30 a.m. During the shooting, Ortiz’s vehicle crashed into a wall across the street, and surveillance video showed the pickup fleeing the scene at high speed.

About five minutes later, the truck returned. One of the occupants told detectives that the group grabbed a firearm and bottles of alcohol from Ortiz’s car. ShotSpotter recorded a single gunshot at 2:35 a.m., coinciding with the teens’ return to the crashed vehicle. The pickup then fled the scene a second time on Rio Grande Blvd.

The three teens are facing the following charges:

• Open count of murder
• Conspiracy to commit murder
• Shooting at or from a motor vehicle
• Conspiracy to commit shooting at or from a motor vehicle
• Armed robbery
• Conspiracy to commit armed robbery
• Tampering with evidence
• Conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence
• Possession of a handgun by a person under age 19