SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Videos released by police Thursday of this week’s deadly rampage in New Mexico recorded a voice said to be the shooter urging police to “kill me” and officers rushing toward the 18-year-old gunman before fatally shooting him outside a church.
“He is yelling on the Ring footage, ‘Come kill me,'” Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said of Beau Wilson, the high school senior who authorities say killed three older women during the attack.
“He’s making a stand, he has opportunities to run off, he does not use those opportunities,” Hebbe said. “So yes it’s my belief that ultimately in his head, he has made the decision that he is going to stand and fight it out until he is killed.”
At least six other people were wounded in Monday’s shootings, which sent waves of grief rippling through Farmington, a community of 50,000 people in the state’s northwest. The wounded included two police officers, who have been released from medical care as they recover.
Slain by the shooter were longtime Farmington residents Gwendolyn Schofield, 97, her 73-year-old daughter, Melody Ivie, and 79-year-old Shirley Voita.
Hebbe’s comments mirrored previous statements from witness Candi Brammell, who lives next to the church and told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that the gunman seemed to be egging police on, telling them: “Come on!”
Brammell said she couldn’t believe what she was seeing as Wilson opened fire. Within an instant, he was exchanging shots with the police and then was down in the grass.
Wilson lived with his father in a home that contained an arsenal of weapons and ammunition that appeared to be legally owned, according to law enforcement authorities. He bought an assault-style rifle last year after he turned 18.
On Monday, police say, he began shooting indiscriminately with the AR-15 from the front porch area of the home, but quickly dropped the weapon into some bushes even though it still held more live ammunition.
Wilson then walked down the street for about a quarter mile, spraying bullets indiscriminately using two pistols. He discharged a .22-caliber gun and then depleted rounds from a 9-mm weapon in the final shootout with police, during which he let off at least 18 rounds.
He wore what appeared to be a modified protective vest with steel plates, but authorities say he discarded the vest before the shootout with police.
A note was found in his pocket that said, “If your reading this im the end of the chapter.”
Efforts were underway by authorities to access medical and school records that might shed light on Wilson’s mental history.
New Mexico enacted a so-called red flag law in 2020 that can be used to seize guns from people who pose a danger to themselves or others. Judicial records show the Farmington Police Department has petitioned successfully for the removal of guns in other instances, most recently in February.
Police have been probing for motivations behind the deadly attack by Beau Wilson on Monday, the day before he was due to graduate from high school, amid some indications from relatives of prior mental health issues.
Located near the Four Corners where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet, Farmington is a supply line and bedroom community to the region’s oil and natural gas industry.