ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO (AP) – Police in Albuquerque arrested a man suspected of stabbing 11 people as he rode a bicycle around the city over the weekend, leaving two victims critically injured, authorities said.
The suspect was identified as Tobias Gutierrez, a 42-year-old man with a criminal history that includes felony offences that range from burglary to battery and possession of a controlled substance.
He was booked into jail on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, police in New Mexico’s largest city said in a statement on Monday. Booking documents said he was homeless.
The stabbings appeared to have been committed at random within hours along Central Avenue, one of the city’s main thoroughfares. One of the crime scenes included a homeless encampment and another was near a smoke shop where the suspect asked a victim for money and yelled obscenities before swinging a knife, according to a criminal complaint.
“There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason” to the attacks, police spokesman Gilbert
Gallegos said.
There was no immediate information on whether Gutierrez had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
New Mexico court records show Gutierrez also had been charged over the years with drug possession and driving while intoxicated.
In 2014, Gutierrez failed to appear in court for driving on a revoked licence, records show.
He responded to the court with a handwritten note saying that he was in federal custody in another county and that he was making an effort to better himself while incarcerated.
His federal prison sentence stemmed from a case in which he entered an establishment north of Albuquerque while carrying a revolver and ammunition. Authorities said Gutierrez got into an altercation with a security officer, dropped the revolver, got into a vehicle and led police on a chase through a suburb until he crashed and was found hiding.
Records show he was released from federal custody in 2020.
Records also show that police were called to his mother’s home twice last September for domestic altercations, including one in which he was accused of stabbing her husband. No charges were filed.
