Farmington shooting: Teenager kills three and injures six

A US teenager killed three people and injured six others in a New Mexico town before police shot him dead outside a church.

Police responded “to find a chaotic scene where a male subject was actively firing upon individuals” in Farmington, 290km north-west of Albuquerque, said Baric Crum, of the Farmington Police Department.

Police chief Steve Hebbe said the gunman, 18, used at least three weapons, including an “AR-style rifle”, as he fired at bystanders, cars and houses. The gunman and victims' identities have not yet been released.

Mr Hebbe said the shooting was “honestly one of the most horrific and difficult days that Farmington has ever had as a community”.

Authorities were still looking for a motive behind the shooting. Mr Hebbe said “it appears to be purely random”, as no particular institutions or people were targeted.

Video footage posted on TikTok showed a man wearing black clothing outside the First Church of Christ Scientist before he is shot dead by police. The person who had apparently recorded the video described the incident to someone else, saying: “There's a person laying in the middle of the street.”

Two police officers wounded in the shooting were in stable condition in hospital. The condition of the four other wounded people was not made known.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said she was “deeply upset by the tragic violence” in Farmington and was praying for the victims and their families.

The mass shooting was the 225th recorded in the US this year, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. It defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people (not including the person shooting) are shot or killed.

Agencies contributed to this report

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