by Katy Knapp
Daily Lobo
A woman was stabbed and a man fatally shot at a Wal-Mart Supercenter on San Mateo Boulevard Thursday evening.
Trish Hoffman, Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman, said officers were called to the store at 301 San Mateo Blvd. SE around 5 p.m. They received two separate calls - one for a possible shooting and one for a possible stabbing, she said.
Police believe a man jumped over a deli counter and stabbed a woman who was possibly an employee at the store, Hoffman said.
Another man, probably a customer in the store, shot the man who was stabbing the woman three times, Hoffman said.
She said the man believed to be the shooter was in police custody for questioning.
Hoffman said police believe the altercation was a possible domestic dispute, but did not know specific information about their relation to each other or why the incident took place.
The woman was transferred to UNM Hospital with multiple stab wounds and was reported to be in stable condition at 9 p.m. Thursday, Hoffman said.
"It doesn't look like she's going to die," she said.
The man was declared dead at the scene.
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Brian Lewis and Dale Enggass, both UNM students shopping in the store at the time of the incident, said they heard screaming coming from the produce section.
"I went to see what was happening and saw a couple people running," Lewis said.
He saw a male wearing a red shirt trying to jump over the deli counter, he said.
"Then I saw him on top of it and I looked away for a minute," Lewis said. That was when he heard a gun shot, he said.
He and Lewis started running toward the back exit of the store when they heard two more gunshots, Enggass said. Some customers in the store were crouching on the floor while others were running out, he said.
Lewis said some customers in the store at the time of the shooting didn't seem to notice the gunshots.
"And they were really loud," he said.
All store employees and customers were corralled in the parking lot for police questioning.
Hoffman said the store will be closed until 7 a.m. today to give investigators time to process the scene and collect evidence.
