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| Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden, right, addresses reporters during a news conference, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015, at police headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M., with FBI Special Agent in Charge Carol K.O. Lee, left, to discuss the death of a 4-year-old girl who was shot during an apparent road-rage argument on Tuesday. A person of interest was taken into custody Wednesday in a road rage shooting that killed a 4-year-old girl on a freeway in New Mexico's largest city, police said. |
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. (AP) -- Police detained a man on Wednesday in connection
with the road-rage killing of a 4-year-old girl who was shot in the
backseat of her father's truck after he picked up her and her brother
from school, signaling a possible break in a case that has horrified the
public.
Albuquerque police would not say if
they believe the person of interest taken into custody is the shooter,
but they said he matched the description of the gunman. His name was not
immediately released.
Four-year-old Lilly
Garcia was riding in the backseat of her dad's truck with her 7-year-old
brother Tuesday when someone in a Toyota opened fire on the family as
they traveled down the main east-west freeway in Albuquerque. The father
quickly pulled the truck into the median and tried to administer first
aid on his daughter as a bystander called 911 to report "an adult
holding an unresponsive child."
Two nurses
showed up and tried save the girl's life as ambulances arrived and
rushed her to the hospital, where she died, Albuquerque Police Chief
Gorden Eden said.
Authorities quickly began
pressing for tips, offering roughly $25,000 for information that leads
to the arrest of the shooter, who was driving a newer-model maroon or
dark red Toyota Corolla or Camry with a spoiler on the trunk and dark
tinted windows. The car also had a University of New Mexico license
plate.
Details about a suspect, described as
in his mid-20s or early 30s, emerged after police investigated more than
a dozen leads, Eden said.
Albuquerque
officers "have not stopped or slept," the police chief said. "Every
officer in law enforcement in New Mexico is currently looking for the
vehicle I described."
Albuquerque police say
the person of interest taken into custody near the shooting site matches
the description of a man with short dark hair, a thin face and goatee.
Police are seeking a warrant to search an Albuquerque home and a car as part of their investigation, Officer Tanner Tixier said.
The
person of interest was detained not long after police issued a public
appeal for help to identify and find a suspect in the shooting.
It's not clear what led the incident to escalate, but the father told officers the shooting was the result of road rage.
Mayor
Richard Berry said Wednesday that the slaying "cut to the core" of the
community. Police worked with state transportation officials to post
requests for tips on interstate billboards, Tixier said. He did not know
if detectives were able to collect shell casings or other ballistic
evidence.
Shortly after the shooting, a
Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy pulled up to a vehicle he believed
was in distress and found the wounded child inside, police said. The
child's father and brother were not injured.
