Drive-by shooting cuts couple’s holiday travel short

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Violent criminals in Albuquerque did not take the Thanksgiving break some were hoping they would. A northeast Albuquerque family cut a vacation short to patch bullet holes and clean up broken glass from a drive by shooting outside their front door.

“I mean it was surreal,” said Kenney Elkomous, whose been renting the home with his girlfriend for years. 

They left for a holiday getaway in Mexico City early last week. A family member who was looking after the house broke the news to them Wednesday.

“He came back Wednesday at 3 p.m. just before Thanksgiving to find the house with gunshots,” said Elkomous. 

There were dozens of them in the house and car.

“He initially counted 24 and he wasn’t far off, the forensic investigator counted 26,” said Elkomous. 

It’s an unfortunate way to change holiday vacation plans very fast. 

“We were just scrambling to make sense of it and what our next steps would be,” said Elkomous. 

They changed their flight and flew home on Thanksgiving to call investigators. But their home is situated in a dead spot, where none of their neighbors’ cameras could pick up anything from that night. 

“No shell casings, no bullets, just a guess that perhaps it was a nine-millimeter or a couple of nine-millimeter guns,” said Elkomous. “I’m almost not even angry with them, I’m more angry or upset with the conditions that would cause someone to do such a thing because anyone who would shoot up a house 26 times– not to be overly empathetic with them– but at the same time you know you don’t do that if life is going peachy.”

A neighbor one street over posted about a similar incident earlier this month. She said she found five gun shots in her house. 

“There are moments when we’re out and about on foot where things feel somewhat unsafe but at home– yeah never expected this right where we live,” said Elkomous.

Mayor Tim Keller and a few state legislators recently mentioned gun violence like this during a metro crime initiative update. They said one of their goals for this legislative session is to create a new fourth degree felony offense for randomly shooting a firearm in a populated area.

“The criminal justice system should reflect the enhancement that a life could be lost, a child could die because of that weapon as opposed to if that weapon was not in the equation,” said Keller on Nov. 16.