Michael LaMotte, 14, Hispanic male, from Albuquerque, was shot in the head in the early hours of Friday, July 25, 2025, inside a dorm room at the Casas Del Rio complex on the University of New Mexico's main campus. According to court documents summarized by local outlets, four teens and young men had gathered to play video games in the Gila building when, “out of nowhere,” the suspect produced a handgun and opened fire, killing 14-year-old Michael LaMotte and wounding a 19-year-old student
who later reached a hospital. Investigators recovered blood, a pair of jeans, keys, and a stolen 9mm handgun on a nearby campus rooftop as they traced the suspect's flight across campus.
By that afternoon, New Mexico State Police arrested 18-year-old John Fuentes off Highway 314 in Los Lunas. Prosecutors charged John Fuentes with first-degree murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, and tampering with evidence, and a judge later ordered him held pending trial. Reporting based on released audio, police reports, and testimony says the group had been using drugs and alcohol in the hours before the gunfire; prosecutors alleged John Fuentes was under the influence of LSD, cocaine, cannabis, and alcohol. Michael LaMotte, 14, male, was found slumped in a chair in the dorm room; an autopsy determined he died of a single gunshot wound to the front of the head.
Hours of 911 calls and police radio traffic later released by UNM show a chaotic night and a campus slow to grasp the scale of the crisis. Michael LaMotte's mother phoned authorities multiple times seeking help and asking whether officers had checked the room, and officers ultimately breached the dorm through a window and discovered Michael LaMotte, 14, male, after earlier reports of a gun-wielding suspect and a gunshot-detection alert near Casas Del Rio. University officials said officers needed probable cause to enter dorm rooms, while the family's attorney publicly questioned the timeliness of the response.
In the weeks that followed, investigators and prosecutors brought additional cases connected to the night Michael LaMotte, 14, male, was killed. Zion Miera, identified in news reports as Michael's half-brother, was charged with two counts of tampering with evidence, drug possession, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor; a judge later ordered him detained pending trial. Court filings state he drove Michael to the dorm, returned to remove items, and deleted material from Michael's phone; another young man present in the room, 19-year-old Daniel Archuleta, also faced charges, with an arrest warrant noted in news coverage at the time.
Across Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, grief turned public. A vigil at Haynes Park drew crowds who honored Michael LaMotte, 14, male, while community updates and obituaries marked the loss of a boy who should have been preparing for his sophomore year of high school. The family's statement, circulated by their attorney days after the shooting, called his killing a senseless tragedy and said they were investigating the timeline of events on campus that night.
