A 21-year-old man was arrested and charged with shooting his stepmother during a charter school graduation ceremony, police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said.
The shooting occurred shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Police said that they were called to the venue for what was initially believed to be an active shooter but that when officers arrived they "discovered it was a single shot fired by one individual."
A woman was injured and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Cristian Bencomo, 21, was arrested and booked on charges of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, aggravated assault and two counts of unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon, online jail records show. It's not clear whether he has obtained an attorney.
Police said a graduation was taking place for Southwest Secondary Learning Center. The woman was attending her stepson's graduation, they said. When her stepson arrived, she started to hug him, and he pulled out a gun and shot her in the neck, authorities alleged.
"As you can imagine there was a lot of chaos at the time. It's going to take detectives a while to track down potential witnesses," a police spokesperson said at a news briefing.
A motive remains unclear.
