US: 18-year-old gunman kills 3, wounds 6

(CNN) — Authorities on Tuesday identified Beau Wilson, 18, as the gunman who killed three people and wounded six others Monday as he roamed a northwestern New Mexico neighborhood, shooting at random with an assault-style rifle and other guns before police killed him.

Wilson was a high school student, authorities said at a news conference in the city of Farmington.

He was armed with at least three weapons, including an AR-style rifle, that were purchased legally, Deputy Police Chief Kyle Dowdy said.

“We’re still investigating how he came into possession of those firearms,” Dowdy said, adding the gunman, who turned 18 in October, bought one of the guns in November. He later said police believe the other weapons were legally owned by a family member.

Wilson was shooting “pretty indiscriminately” at houses and cars and there were no specific targets or motives, Dowdy said. He said investigators have not seen a link between the assailant and the victims.

The three deceased victims were elderly women who were traveling in cars, authorities said.

The attack leaves yet another American community “reeling in anguish and disbelief,” Farmington’s mayor said Monday night. Still, “there were no schools, no churches, no individuals targeted” Monday by the 18-year-old, its police chief said Monday, nodding to the wider US scourge of gun violence that’s tallied 225 mass shootings in the first 20 weeks of the year.

Investigators are piecing together how the attack unfolded over a “wide and complex scene” that spans more than a quarter of a mile, Police Chief Steve Hebbe said in a video statement.

The shooter walked through the neighborhood in this commercial hub near the Southwest’s Four Corners and “randomly fired at whatever entered his head to shoot at,” before police arrived and fatally shot him, Hebbe said Monday night.

In his arsenal was an assault-style rifle – a weapon of choice among US mass shooters in recent, high-profile massacres, including the 2012 Sandy Hook school attack and a shooting in Uvalde, Texas, nearly a year ago that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Among the injured was a New Mexico State Police officer who drove himself to a medical facility and a Farmington police sergeant who were taken to a hospital, treated and eventually released.

Farmington’s San Juan Regional Medical Center received seven patients, spokesperson Laura Werbner told CNN. She declined to comment on their conditions.

Mayor Nate Duckett on Monday got calls of support from the White House, lawmakers in Washington, Navajo Nation leaders and state mayors, he said, adding: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families during this incomprehensible time of pain and loss.”

“We are a resilient community, a community that cares for each other. In the face of adversity, we must stand together, comfort one another, and make a determined effort to heal these wounds so we can emerge stronger and not allow this act of violence to define us.” the mayor added.

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