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| A Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department crime lab is stationed outside a home south in Albuquerque, N.M., on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013, where two adults and three children were found shot to death. Authorities say a teenager has been arrested and booked on murder and other charges in connection with the shootings. |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
(AP) -- The New Mexico teenager accused of fatally shooting his
parents and three younger siblings told authorities he was annoyed with
his mother and had been having homicidal and suicidal thoughts,
according to a probable cause statement.
Nehemiah
Griego, 15, remained in custody Monday on charges of murder and child
abuse resulting in death. He was arrested following the shootings
Saturday at a home in a rural area southwest of Albuquerque where he
lived with his family.
A Bernalillo County
sheriff's detective questioned the teen Saturday night and the details
of their conversation were spelled out in the statement.
The
teen allegedly told the detective that he took a .22 caliber rifle from
his parents' closet around midnight Saturday and shot his mother in the
head while his younger brother slept next to her.
Griego
told the detective that his brother did not believe him that their
mother was dead so he showed his mother's bloody face to his brother and
then shot him, according to the statement.
He's
accused of then shooting his two young sisters in their room. He
retrieved an AR-15 rifle from his parents' closet and waited in a
downstairs bathroom for his father to come home. The statement said he
shot his father multiple times after he passed the bathroom doorway.
The teen said he reloaded the guns so "he could drive to a populated area to murder more people," according to the statement.
His
plan, the statement said, was to "shoot people at random and eventually
be killed while exchanging gunfire with law enforcement."
Sheriff's spokesman Deputy Aaron Williamson said Monday he couldn't immediately comment on the document.
Detectives have spent two days collecting evidence and trying to piece together what led to the violence.
"There's
no other way to say it, except that we have a horrific crime scene down
there that we are working on," Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston
said Sunday.
The detectives had finished their
work at the home by Monday afternoon. The metal gate at the home's
entrance was shut, a small bouquet of purple flowers was on the top of
the gate and at each side there were religious signs, including one that
read "Jesus is the reason for the season."
The
sheriff's office identified the victims as Greg Griego, 51, his wife
Sarah Griego, 40, and three of their children: a 9-year-old boy,
Zephania Griego, and daughters Jael Griego, 5, and Angelina Griego, 2.
All appeared to have gunshot wounds to the head.
Greg
Griego was a pastor who had once served at Calvary, one of
Albuquerque's largest Christian churches.
He was also well-known
throughout the law enforcement community for his work as a voluntary
chaplain.
Neighbor Terry Wootan described
Griego as a man with a big heart. The two sometimes chatted at the
mailbox and would wave to each other when passing by. Wootan said Griego
told him about his time in California when he was involved in gangs and
how he turned his life around and found God.
"What he wanted to do was help people, and he would never quit," Wootan said.
The
pastor's death has shocked the community, including the Albuquerque
Fire Department and the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he
volunteered his spiritual guidance.
A records
check by the Children, Youth and Families Department indicated no
trouble with the Griego family and that Nehemiah Griego had never been
in trouble with the law.
"This youth had no history with the juvenile justice system," agency spokesman Bob Tafoya said Monday.
Williamson confirmed there was no history of any emergency calls to the home in the recent past.
Neighbors
said they saw the first police cars and ambulances arrive at the home
Saturday night. The road was blocked and word of the shootings began to
make its way through the neighborhood.
According
to the probable cause statement, Nehemiah Griego first told a staff
member at Calvary that his family was dead and that he placed the two
rifles in the family van as protection before driving to the church. He
later changed his story, according to the detective's statement.
Asked
if he had told anyone else about murdering his family, Griego allegedly
told the detective that he had taken a picture of his dead mother and
sent it to his girlfriend.
Sheriff Dan Houston
plans to hold a news conference Tuesday morning, and the teen could
make his first court appearance in the next day or two.
