Police say Matthew Leib’s girlfriend and friend had escaped an armed confrontation but went back when they realized he remained inside.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Matthew Leib’s girlfriend and another friend had made it outside a North Valley home during an increasingly volatile confrontation when they realized the 34-year-old had not escaped with them, according to police. They went back. Minutes later, Leib was found fatally shot and his father was taken into custody.
That decision to return is one of the crucial turns in the account investigators assembled after the Sept. 20 shooting on Sabre Court NW. Police allege Mark Leib, 64, killed his son and assaulted the younger man’s girlfriend during a confrontation involving a shotgun. He was arrested on an open count of murder, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. The charges remain allegations, and the available reports reviewed for this article do not show that the case had reached a final disposition by Nov. 7.
The girlfriend’s account begins before the shooting, when she, Matthew Leib and a friend were spending time together at the residence. Mark Leib returned to the house and began making statements about killing or hurting someone, according to the criminal complaint as reported by the Albuquerque Journal and Law&Crime. The friend became concerned enough to tell Matthew that they should leave. The girlfriend, meanwhile, tried a different approach: She persuaded the older Leib to go into a bedroom and attempted to keep the confrontation separated from the others.
The separation was temporary. Police say Mark Leib emerged with a shotgun, setting off another confrontation with the woman. She told investigators that she tried to push him back and that he forced his way through a door, grabbed her clothing and became involved in a physical exchange with her. Reports say he then pointed the firearm toward her and threatened her life. The complaint describes Matthew Leib stepping between the weapon and his girlfriend, placing himself in the middle of the escalating dispute between his father and the woman.
The friend’s account gives investigators a second perspective on that moment. He told detectives that Matthew Leib confronted his father after the firearm was directed at the girlfriend and that Mark Leib also threatened his son. The girlfriend and the friend then moved away from the danger and left in separate vehicles. Their accounts do not describe Matthew Leib leaving with them. Once they realized he remained at the house, they returned, changing their role from people trying to escape the confrontation to the first known people to check on him after the gunfire.
Police say Mark Leib came out of the residence as the pair returned and told them he had shot or killed his son. The girlfriend went inside and found Matthew Leib in the hallway suffering from gunshot wounds to his chest. She contacted 911 and stayed beside him. Investigators allege that the violence then continued: Mark Leib is accused of returning to the area and striking her several times in the head with the stock of the shotgun while she was with Matthew and on the phone seeking emergency help.
The woman survived the alleged assault. Matthew Leib did not. By the time emergency responders reached him, police said his injuries were beyond lifesaving treatment. The girlfriend’s identity was not publicly released in the principal reports reviewed for this article. That leaves much of the publicly known narrative focused on what she told investigators rather than on personal information about her, including her effort to separate the parties, her departure from the house, her return and the alleged assault she experienced after finding Matthew.
A neighbor supplied another piece of the timeline without claiming to have seen what happened inside. According to the complaint, the neighbor heard a loud gathering, an argument and two loud noises she believed might have been gunshots. Police were dispatched to the area shortly before midnight, with the Albuquerque Journal reporting a response time of about 11:18 p.m. Officers arrived to find a fatal shooting scene and began separating witness accounts from physical evidence collected inside the residence.
The scene supported several parts of the investigation but did not by itself resolve every question about the shooting. Officers reported recovering a shotgun, two spent shell casings and evidence of impacts in the hallway walls. Matthew Leib’s body was found in the hallway. Those items gave detectives physical evidence to compare with what the girlfriend, the friend and the neighbor had reported. Publicly available accounts reviewed for this article do not provide a complete forensic analysis or a final reconstruction of the trajectories, timing or precise positions of everyone involved.
Investigators also obtained evidence that did not depend on the witnesses who returned to the home. Police said a caller using a blocked or unidentified number made statements acknowledging the killing of his son, and authorities believed the call was associated with Mark Leib. Officers further reported that Leib made incriminating statements after he was detained. When detectives later advised him of his rights and attempted a formal interview, the complaint says he invoked his right to remain silent rather than answer questions.
The distinction between those different forms of evidence matters as the case enters the court system. Witness statements describe what people say they saw and heard. A recorded emergency call can preserve a speaker’s words but may still generate disputes over identity, context or admissibility. Physical evidence can help investigators test parts of a narrative but does not automatically establish intent. Prosecutors will have the burden of proving every criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt, while the defense can challenge the state’s evidence and present its own account.
The open count of murder is the most serious accusation, but it is not a conviction and does not by itself determine the precise murder theory that would be presented at trial. The remaining counts concern alleged threats and violence involving people who were at the home during the confrontation. The two aggravated-assault counts and the aggravated-battery count show that the prosecution is treating the events surrounding Matthew Leib’s death as more than a single act of gunfire, with alleged conduct toward other people forming separate parts of the criminal case.
Albuquerque police now list the Sept. 20 Sabre Court homicide as solved in the department’s public 2026 statistics. Police use that designation when an investigation has produced a suspect resolution; it does not mean the accused has been found guilty in court. As of Nov. 6, APD listed 50 homicide victims for the year, including the Sabre Court case, and identified firearms as the weapon in 36 homicide cases. The department’s statistics list six 2026 homicide cases as domestic violence, though the public table does not provide a detailed narrative for each classification.
For this case, the most consequential evidence remains tied to a small group of people and a short sequence of events inside and around one home. The girlfriend and friend described leaving because they believed the armed confrontation was dangerous, then returning because Matthew had not come with them. Investigators say what they found after returning became the basis for an emergency response, a homicide investigation and the arrest of Matthew Leib’s father. What a court ultimately concludes about those allegations remains unresolved.
Author note: Last updated November 7, 2026.