At least 27 shots fired into Albuquerque store parking lot

Gunfire damaged multiple vehicles during a drive-by shooting Tuesday night outside an Albuquerque grocery store. Albuquerque Police said someone fired dozens of rounds, but nobody suffered injuries.

Investigators do not know who fired the weapon. Police say they do not believe the shooter targeted anyone specifically.

Albuquerque Police say at least 27 shots were fired during the incident. The rounds struck four different vehicles and missed all bystanders.

Shopper Larry walked out of the store to find his car at the center of the scene. Seven bullets struck his Hyundai Sonata.

Larry said the shooting occurred Tuesday night at the Smith’s location on Yale and Coal. He was shopping inside during the gunfire.

“I was going through the self-checkout when the sales clerk there said, ‘Oh there was a shooting in the parking lot,’” Larry said.

Another vehicle sustained damage during the gunfire. Larry said someone reported a broken window.

“Maybe it’s a gang initiation thing, you gotta go by and shoot some cars,” Larry said.

Officers said the suspect simply fired off rounds to wreak havoc. APD said surveillance cameras at the store captured no footage of the drive-by shooting.

“We’re very fortunate nobody got hurt. This is a violent crime, obviously. Cars did get damaged,” said Albuquerque Police Officer Simon Drobik.

Officers collected physical evidence left behind at the scene. They plan to run that evidence through their ballistic tracking system.

“A lot of times when people do these crimes those guns are used in other crimes, so we collected that evidence and we’re going to put it through our system to see if it comes back from any other shootings,” Drobik said.

Detectives with the Albuquerque Police Department investigate drive-by shootings by collecting spent casings and interviewing witnesses. Forensics teams process firearms evidence through national databases to track weapon usage.

Police believe there was only one shooter. Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP.