The Albuquerque mother arrested after the killing faces a charge tied to firearm access by minors as prosecutors weigh the child’s legal status.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The arrest of an Albuquerque mother after her 10-year-old son allegedly fatally shot a teenage neighbor is bringing renewed attention to a New Mexico law that can impose criminal penalties when adults negligently allow minors to gain access to firearms.
Elaina Gomez-Villeda, 40, is among those charged under the state’s firearm-access statute after police said her son obtained a handgun during an Oct. 31 fight between neighbors and fatally shot 16-year-old Keinerlein Rangel. Police allege Gomez-Villeda told the boy to retrieve the weapon during the confrontation, a claim that places both access to the firearm and the mother’s alleged instructions at the center of the case.
New Mexico enacted its firearm-access law in 2023 as the Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act. The statute makes it a crime to keep or store a firearm in a way that negligently disregards a minor’s ability to access it when the minor later uses or displays the weapon under circumstances covered by the law. When a minor’s access results in great bodily harm or death, the statute provides for a fourth-degree felony.
The law also contains exceptions, including circumstances in which a firearm was secured in a locked container, protected by a firearm safety device, kept in a location a reasonable person would consider secure or obtained for certain lawful activities. Which provisions ultimately apply to Gomez-Villeda will be determined through the criminal case. An arrest and criminal charge are not findings of guilt.
Police said the deadly confrontation began with a dispute over loud music at an apartment complex in the 200 block of Tennessee Street NE. Gomez-Villeda became involved in a physical fight with Rangel’s mother, Susana Rangel, investigators said. Keinerlein Rangel tried to intervene, and Gomez-Villeda’s 10-year-old son also became involved as the confrontation continued.
Investigators allege Gomez-Villeda then instructed her son to go into their apartment and retrieve her handgun. Police said the child returned with the firearm and fired once, killing Rangel. The boy has not been publicly identified because he has not been charged. Authorities said detectives are working with the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office and state officials to determine what legal action, if any, is available because he is only 10.
The boy’s age creates a separate legal issue from the allegations against his mother. Police have focused their publicly announced charges on Gomez-Villeda’s alleged conduct before and during the shooting, including the claim that she directed the child to get the firearm. Her charges include an open count of murder, child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, negligently making a firearm accessible to a minor, battery and receiving a stolen firearm. Police also publicly listed conspiracy to commit murder in one account of the case.
Investigators said the handgun involved in Rangel’s death had previously been reported stolen from Santa Fe. Police said it was later located outside Gomez-Villeda’s apartment. The allegation that a 10-year-old could obtain the weapon during a fast-moving confrontation is expected to be a central part of the firearm-access charge, though prosecutors will have to prove the elements of any charge pursued in court.
The 2023 law was named for Bennie Hargrove, a Washington Middle School student who was fatally shot by another student using a firearm taken from home. State officials said when the legislation was signed that its purpose was to impose consequences when firearms are negligently stored in ways that allow children to gain access. The law distinguishes between cases involving threatening display or lesser injury and those in which access results in great bodily harm or death.
The Albuquerque case also involves an investigation separate from the child’s alleged gunfire. Police said that after the fatal shooting, Gomez-Villeda went inside the apartment and later fired another gun as Rangel’s father tried to enter after learning his daughter had been shot. Officers arriving at the complex encountered Gomez-Villeda carrying a handgun, and one officer fired toward her. She was not struck. A Multi-Agency Task Force is investigating that use of force.
Albuquerque police classified the Oct. 31 death at 238 Tennessee St. NE as one of the city’s 50 homicides recorded through Nov. 1. Police listed the homicide as solved after Gomez-Villeda’s arrest, but that designation does not mean the criminal case has been resolved. Homicide detectives are continuing their investigation, and prosecutors and state officials have not announced whether the 10-year-old will face any charge.
Author note: Last updated November 2, 2026.