Authorities said a 4-year-old boy was killed, while the mother and a 1-year-old child were hospitalized in critical condition after a domestic violence attack near Tijeras.
TIJERAS, N.M. — A 41-year-old New Mexico man was arrested after authorities said he shot his wife and her two young children inside a home near Tijeras early Feb. 17, killing a 4-year-old boy and critically wounding the woman and a 1-year-old child.
Investigators say the case has shaken law enforcement and prosecutors in the Albuquerque area because the injured woman is an assistant district attorney in the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office. Sheriff John Allen called the scene one of the most horrific his deputies had faced, and court records described a 911 call in which dispatchers heard gunfire, screams and the suspect yelling at the victims. The suspect, Luis Sanchez, was booked on felony charges, and officials said the investigation remained active as doctors treated the two survivors.
Deputies were called at about 1:18 a.m. to the Leisure Mountain RV Park in the 700 block of N.M. 333 after a woman reported that her husband had a handgun and was threatening her, according to investigators. While deputies were driving to the home, dispatch received updates that shots had been fired inside. Authorities said deputies arrived in about seven minutes and found Sanchez outside the residence. He did not surrender peacefully and was arrested after deputies used a Taser, according to investigators. Inside, first responders found a 4-year-old boy dead at the scene. The woman and a 1-year-old boy were rushed to a hospital in critical condition. At a news conference later that day, Allen said the 911 recording was the hardest call he had heard in his career, describing the audio as people suffering and dying in real time.
Investigators later outlined a grim account in court records and public statements. According to the arrest affidavit described by local media, dispatchers heard the wounded woman say her husband had shot her and the children. Deputies said Sanchez could also be heard shouting, “Why aren’t you dead?” and “How is the baby still alive? You should be dead.” The affidavit, as reported by local outlets, said Sanchez accused his wife of cheating on him and complained about their sex life before the shooting. Authorities also said he made rambling statements about being evil, talking to God and being insane. When deputies reached the door, he was allegedly heard saying he had killed the baby and calling himself a murderer. After officers entered the home, they found a firearm in the sink, according to the affidavit. Sanchez later refused to speak with deputies, investigators said. Officials have not publicly described a defense from him, and court records available in early coverage did not make clear whether he had retained an attorney.
The woman who survived the attack was identified in local reporting as Paige Mowrer, a prosecutor in Bernalillo County, after the district attorney’s office confirmed that one of its staff members and her children were the victims. District Attorney Sam Bregman said the tragedy had profoundly affected the office and its employees. The office described the injured prosecutor as a dedicated and respected colleague and said staff members were being offered support as they coped with the case. The attack also drew attention because sheriff’s officials said Sanchez had no prior criminal history and that there had been no recent calls for service tied to the home or phone number in the previous year. That detail left major questions unanswered in the first days of the case, including whether there had been warning signs outside formal police contact and whether the two children were Sanchez’s biological children or his stepchildren. Early reports said officials had not yet publicly answered that question.
The shooting unfolded east of Albuquerque in the village of Tijeras, a small community along the mountain corridor where violent crime of this scale is uncommon enough to draw intense regional attention. The home was in a mobile home and RV park off N.M. 333, an older stretch of Route 66 that runs through Bernalillo County’s East Mountains. News photographs from the scene showed deputies and investigators gathered outside the residence through the morning and into the afternoon as the sheriff’s office processed evidence. Allen said the case was among the worst his deputies and first responders had seen, and local reporting made clear that investigators were treating the house as a major crime scene from the start. The combination of a domestic violence call, a child homicide and the wounding of a county prosecutor quickly turned the case into one of the most closely watched criminal investigations in New Mexico that week.
Sanchez was booked into the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center on charges that included intentional child abuse resulting in death, child abuse with great bodily harm, aggravated battery against a household member with great bodily harm and tampering with evidence, according to the sheriff’s office and local reports. Allen said at his briefing that charges could later be upgraded, depending on the condition of the surviving child and the continuing investigation. Court coverage said Sanchez was being held without bond and was scheduled for a detention hearing on Feb. 25. As the criminal case moved forward, investigators still had several tasks ahead: reviewing the full 911 recording, completing forensic work on the gun recovered at the scene, collecting medical updates from the hospital and continuing interviews tied to the hours before the shooting. Prosecutors and sheriff’s officials had not publicly laid out a full motive beyond the statements described in the affidavit, and the case was expected to develop further once medical and forensic findings were complete.
The public record that emerged in the first day of coverage mixed official detail with the raw human shock of those who heard the call and saw the aftermath. Allen told reporters that some emergency workers were confronted with suffering that would stay with them. Bregman’s office, speaking not only as a prosecutor’s office but also as a workplace in mourning, said the news hit colleagues as friends and members of a close community. Even the sparse scene details carried unusual weight: deputies arriving before dawn, a suspect emerging from the home unclothed and covered in blood, medics moving a wounded mother and toddler to surgery, and investigators trying to understand a burst of violence that appeared to erupt inside a family home. Those elements gave the case a wider resonance beyond the initial police briefing, turning it into both a homicide prosecution and a deeply personal loss for the local justice system.
One child was dead, two victims remained hospitalized after emergency treatment and Sanchez was jailed pending his next court appearance on Feb. 25, as of the latest public updates. Authorities said the investigation was still active, with additional records, medical updates and possible charge decisions expected as the case moved ahead.