Man, 20, charged in gas station homicide
Aug. 19—New Mexico State Police have arrested a suspect in Monday's fatal shooting at a Northeast Albuquerque gas station.
Darrien Mells, 20, was charged with an open count of murder in the death of 32-year-old Roderick Thompson. Mells was taken into custody within hours of the incident and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center.
It was the third Albuquerque homicide investigated by State Police this
year. The agency also investigated a double homicide in early May after two men were found shot to death in a crashed car along Interstate 40 near Carlisle.
According to a criminal complaint filed against Mells in Metropolitan Court:
Around 4 p.m., a State Police officer near San Mateo and Indian School NE was flagged down by a driver, who directed them toward a gas station. The officer found Thompson bleeding "heavily" from the head near a gas pump. He died at a hospital.
Thompson's wife told police she had gone inside to pay for gas when she heard two gunshots and ran outside to see her husband on the ground, and a man flee in a gold car. Security video showed two men arrive in the gold car, one of them with a pistol on his waist.
The video showed a man "posturing" at Thompson before words are exchanged and the man points the gun at Thompson. The man shoots once and Thompson lunges at him before the man shoots again. Thompson drops to the ground.
Officers tracked the license plate on the gold car to a man staying at an apartment near Lomas and Tramway NE. Three men, including Mells, were arrested after trying to run from the apartment as police approached.
Mells initially denied being involved in the shooting, but then told police Thompson shot him two years ago. Mells said he shot Thompson once and then a second time in self-defense as Thompson went for a gun in his car.
Police told Mells the video showed Thompson had no gun and Mells shot him because he was "running his mouth," and police said Mells replied, "Yeah you are right, it wasn't self-defense."
