By Jim Snyder
The Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE — Three gunmen burst into an Albuquerque home early Thursday morning, pistol whipping a 19-year-old in the head and then tying him and his parents with ropes, Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh said.
It was the third home invasion by gunmen in Albuquerque in five days.
During the latest incident, two Hispanic males wearing ski masks and one black male who was not wearing a mask pretended to be police officers by yelling, “APD, APD!” to gain entrance into the home. They robbed the house in the 10300 block of Sandy Trail Road SW and then took off in a car, Walsh said.
The son, who sustained a gash in his head, used a kitchen knife to cut his rope and then released his parents, ages 54 and 55. They went to a neighbor’s house to call police at 3:30 a.m., Walsh said. The son was treated at the scene.
Veronica Amesquita, 34, and her father, Craig Luchetti, 54, were shot late Sunday night by two masked teenagers who broke into the woman’s Northeast Height’s home through a crack in the garage door.
Amesquita, a nurse at University of New Mexico Hospital, was shot in the head and chest. Luchetti was shot in the abdomen.
Their conditions were not immediately available Thursday night.
Their assailants are between 15 and 18 years old and are about 5-foot-7, police said.
On Wednesday, two gunmen held a Northwest couple and their children at bay inside their garage before stealing their car.
Walsh said Thursday night it was too early to tell if the three home invasions are related.
“You have victims in all three cases that were extremely traumatized,” he said.
There have been no arrests in any of the cases, he said.
Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal