On the evening of August 16, 2021, 32-year-old Roderick D. Thompson II was shot and killed at a gas station at Indian School and San Mateo in northeast Albuquerque. Thompson, Black/African American, was at the pump while his wife went inside to pay when two men pulled up beside him. Security footage shows one of the men, identified as 20-year-old Darien Mells, pulling a pistol from his waistband. Thompson lunged toward Mells and two shots were fired; the second struck Thompson in the head and he fell to the ground. The two men then fled the scene.

Law enforcement investigated the homicide and later identified and arrested Darien Mells as the primary suspect; an unnamed accomplice who was with Mells at the scene was also taken into custody. Thompson’s family and the community were left grieving a sudden, fatal act of gun violence.

If anyone has information about that night or saw activity near the gas station around the time of the shooting, please come forward.