An 18-year-old, who police have identified as Keshawn Long, is facing multiple charges after he reportedly shot a 15-year-old.
Metro Dispatch received a call around 3:45 pm Oct. 26 requesting an ambulance for someone that had been shot behind the Albertson’s at 1702 E. Hwy. 66. Gallup Police Officer Julio Yazzie responded to the scene, where he found the victim and his girlfriend, who was the one who called Metro Dispatch.
The victim was transported to a local hospital, where medical personnel reportedly determined he’d been shot five times.
Yazzie spoke to multiple witnesses, one of them stating that he’d been driving eastbound when he saw someone shoot the victim from a white car. The witness said he didn’t see everything, but he’d heard three gunshots.
Officers found a blood trail leading from a loading bay parking area and ending at a dumpster. No bullet casings were found at the scene.
Officer Skye Desiderio met with the victim’s girlfriend and his sister. The victim’s girlfriend said that the victim had told her that Long had shot him from a white car with stickers on it.
The young woman said she had been at the McDonald’s at 2300 E. Hwy. 66 when the shooting happened, and the victim called her afterward. She and the victim’s sister were transported to the Gallup Police Department for more questioning.
Meanwhile, Desiderio and Officer Alena Bradley spoke to some kids who were riding bikes in the area when the shooting took place. A 12-year-old boy said he’d seen the shooting, and his parents were contacted so he could be questioned at the GPD station. When he was interviewed, the young boy said he saw a guy walking by some dumpsters, and then a white car drove up next to the guy.
The young boy said he wasn’t too sure about what was happening, but he saw the victim put his bag down and approach the car. He said he heard three shots fired, and then the car drove off westbound on Aztec Avenue. The young boy said he then rode his bike to Dairy Queen, where his friends convinced him to contact the police.
When police spoke to the victim’s girlfriend, she said they both attend Miyamura High School. According to the affidavit for an arrest warrant, the young woman said they both knew Long because he used to go to Miyamura High School as well. The young woman explained that Long was her former stepbrother. Her father and his mother used to be married, but they are now separated.
Both the victim’s girlfriend and her mother said that Long had been bullying them and the victim “for a while now.”
The young woman said that about two weeks before the shooting, the victim had gotten into a fight with one of Long’s friends in a Miyamura High School bathroom. She said she didn’t know why that fight had broken out nor why Long was trying to fight with the victim, but it had been going on for the past two months. She said that Long and his friends would tell her and the victim that they were “going to put them down.”
The victim was reportedly walking to his sister’s house when the shooting happened. He was near the Gallup Aquatic Center at 620 Boardman Dr. when he saw the white car allegedly following him. The people in the vehicle reportedly began calling the victim names. The victim’s girlfriend met him behind the Albertson’s in Zecca Plaza.
After the police officers’ interview with the victim’s girlfriend, Yazzie was able to get the victim on speaker phone from the hospital. The victim told Detective Michael Etsitty that he was shot by a guy he only knew as “Keshawn.” He said he was shot with an “old school”-type weapon, such as a revolver.
After the GPD interviewed the victim, his girlfriend, and multiple witnesses, Judge David Peterson signed a warrant for Long’s arrest around 10:30 pm.
Long was arrested the next day. He has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, shooting at or from a motor vehicle (resulting in great bodily harm), shooting at an occupied dwelling, unlawful possession of a handgun by a person less than 19 years old, and tampering with evidence. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 8.
Staff Reports
