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Man accused of shooting service dog, killing owner
Arrest warrant issued Tuesday for suspected shooter
www.abqjournal.com
APD: Man shot service dog, killed owner in SE ABQ
By Matthew Reisen / Journal Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 29th, 2021 at 4:56PM
Xavier Marquez (MDC)
Police are looking for a man accused of shooting a service dog before killing the owner last week in Southeast Albuquerque.
Xavier Marquez, 22, is charged with an open count of murder, shooting at an occupied dwelling and extreme cruelty to animals in a Sept. 22 incident that left 34-year-old Shawn Lynch brain-dead and injured Lynch’s dog Yessica.
Lynch was hospitalized for several days and pronounced dead on Monday. His service dog, Yessica, was shot in the leg and underwent surgery.
A warrant was issued for Marquez’ arrest on Tuesday.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:
Officers responded around 4 p.m. to the 400 block of Kentucky after multiple people called 911 to report a man had been shot and was lying in the road. Police found Lynch with a gunshot wound to the head and his dog Yessica wounded nearby.
Multiple casings littered the street and a bullet had gone through the wall of a nearby home and embedded into a woman’s mattress as she slept on it. Witnesses told police the shooter was a neighbor who changed clothes before fleeing on a moped.
A friend of Lynch’s told police he had invited Lynch over for dinner when he heard a gunshot and saw his neighbor, later identified as Marquez, shoot at Lynch multiple times. Another witness told police Lynch was walking his dog when Marquez yelled, repeatedly, “What are you looking at dog?” before he grabbed a pistol and shot Yessica.
The witness said Lynch yelled “you just shot my (expletive) dog” and Marquez shot Lynch in the head and drove off on a moped. Police found ammunition, a gun magazine and Marquez’s identification in the vehicle Marquez had been sitting in.
A veterinarian found the bullet had hit Yessica in the leg, went through the dog’s bowels and lodged in her thigh, causing “extreme pain.” Lynch’s friend and another witness picked Marquez out in a photo lineup as the shooter.
The detectives on the case said Marquez had been found in APD reports as an “involved party” in two other recent homicides. A man has been charged in one, but it is unclear what Marquez’ involvement is in either.
Marquez was arrested on Aug. 20 after he drove his car, on fire, into a shoe store parking lot and allegedly punched and bit an off-duty police sergeant.
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