On the late morning of March 4, 2022, 16-year-old Josue Jay Ruiz was shot and killed in an alley near 5th and Central in downtown Albuquerque. Police responded to reports of shots fired around 11:20 a.m. and found Ruiz dead at the scene. Initial investigation indicated a planned fight between Ruiz and another 16-year-old, Angelo Baldonado, tied to ongoing conflicts involving Baldonado’s sister, who was Ruiz’s girlfriend.

Evidence gathered by the Albuquerque Police Department — including text messages, social media communications and cell phone data placing Baldonado at the scene — led to Baldonado’s June 2022 arrest on an open murder charge. While he was incarcerated, Baldonado later implicated his mother, Elizabeth Ortiz-Chavez, claiming she was the shooter and had driven him to the meeting and arranged for him to take the blame. Both were later charged in connection with Ruiz’s death; court filings say Baldonado pleaded to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and felony assault and Ortiz-Chavez pleaded to second-degree murder.

What details about the lead-up to the March 4 meeting or witnesses’ accounts might help explain how this planned confrontation became fatal?