By: ABQ RAW staff
Posted: 5/4/2023 at 1:30PM
APD homicide investigators document a scene on 3/19/2023 where a homeless man was shot in killed under the 1st St NW underpass.
Albuquerque, Metro –
In 2022, the Albuquerque metro area had a record breaking 170 homicides. In the year 2022, Albuquerque easily surpassed the 2021 homicide record by August, with the 126th reported homicide of the year. Now, it appears 2023 is going to match, beat, or fall just below the 2022 record numbers.
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Bernalillo County Sheriff deputies and detectives investigate a homicide at the Blake’s Lotaburger parking lot at 1849 Coors Blvd SW in Albuquerque, NM on 3/14/2023.
We are a quarter of the way through 2023, and the numbers indicate that Albuquerque is 5 homicides behind the 2022 record year. Currently, there are 44 homicide cases in the Albuquerque area. At this time last year there were 50 homicides. It is worth mentioning that in the same time frame of 2022, there were three cases that involved multiple victims. In 2023, there have been 2 cases were 2 homicide victims were involved.
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Here is the breakdown so far this year by agency and their homicide investigations:
APD: 38 (18 people have been identified were charged, arrested, or have since died)
BCSO: 6 (3 people have been identified were charged, arrested, or have since died) *One of these homicide cases was a deputy involved shooting.
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APD homicide detectives arrested Jennifer Key and charged her with 2nd Degree Murder for the fatal stabbing of a man during a confrontation in her apartment on Friday, April 7th, 2023.
Homicide victims were killed in many different ways:
Shot: 36
Stabbed: 5*
Burned: 1
Unknown method: 2
Total: 44
(*One case involved a stabbing and the victim was then burned, so we counted this as a stabbing death, however OMI has not determined if the victim died as a result of the stabbing or being burned alive after being stabbed. We will update this when we learn more but it doesn’t affect the final number.)
ABQ RAW’s policy is to count all homicides that have occurred within the city, including Bernalillo County. For clarification purposes, a homicide is defined as: the killing of one human being by another. It really is that simple. Once OMI rules a death a homicide it stays listed that way forever. The OMI is the ultimate decider statewide about all issues involving death. There are a few cases from 2023 which we are still awaiting record requests to come back from OMI to determine whether or not those cases will become a new homicide stat.
2023 Homicide Map for Albuquerque Metro Area