Man rammed wife’s car, shot and pistol whipped daughter — until a guardsman stepped in, New Mexico police say
A New Mexico woman was driving her daughter to the airport in Albuquerque on Sunday when suddenly another car crashed into them — and it wasn’t an accident, according to police.
It was Qian Ming, 66, the estranged husband of the woman driving, police said. After ramming the truck the women were in around 5 p.m., Ming ran out of his car and started to shoot at the truck, police said, firing at least once and striking the woman's daughter in the shoulder, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
Next, Ming began striking the daughter over and over again in the head using his gun, KOAT reports. Police told the TV station the daughter was in her 20s.
But the two women and Ming weren’t the only drivers at the intersection of Yale and Gibson Boulevards, just blocks from Albuquerque International Airport, that night. An Uber driver and 12-year veteran of the National Guard witnessed the armed confrontation, KOB reports, and decided to step in, according to police.
“He saved our lives,” Xiao Gong, the mother who was driving her daughter to the airport, told police, according to KOB.
When he saw the unfolding violence, the 34-year-old guardsman pointed his own gun at Ming and told him to stop attacking the woman. Instead, police said, Ming pointed his gun at the guardsman, KOAT reports — prompting the guardsman to shoot and kill Ming, fearing for his own safety.
“To say the least, this guy prevented possibly a double homicide. That’s what we could have on our hands tonight,” Officer Simon Drobik, an Albuquerque police spokesman, told the Journal. Drobik added that Gong had been afraid for her life.
The guardsman cooperated with police questioning after the shooting, KRQE reports, and was ultimately released. The daugther who was shot in the altercation with Ming is in stable condition.
And police said the guardsman’s quick thinking made all the difference.
“In my 19 years of experience, I would say that those two females would have been dead if he hadn’t stepped in and took action,” Drobik told the Journal.
Police told KOAT that charges are unlikely for the guardsman, who said he feared for the safety of himself and the two women when he fired at Ming. But the final decision on charges will be up to the district attorney’s office.
This story was originally published February 20, 2018 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Man rammed wife’s car, shot and pistol whipped daughter — until a guardsman stepped in, New Mexico police say."