Rio Rancho, New Mexico: Death of 23-Year-Old Man Outside Presbyterian Clinic Is Investigated as a Homicide

Rio Rancho police are investigating the death of a 23-year-old man who died on Thursday morning, October 22, in the parking lot of Presbyterian Family Medicine, according to a police news release.

Officers responded at about 9:52 a.m. to the clinic at 4100 High Resort Boulevard SE after a report of a man who was unconscious and not breathing, The Paper in Rio Rancho reported. When officers arrived, emergency medical crews were already working to save him in the parking lot. He did not survive.

What police say happened before officers arrived

Two family members were with the man at the clinic. They told police he became aggressive and had to be restrained during the episode, according to the release, as reported by KKOB and The Paper.

Police did not say how the family members restrained him. They did not say what led to the confrontation, and they did not say why the group was at the clinic, The Paper reported.

Why police call it a homicide investigation

Police are treating the death as a homicide until investigators learn more, the release states. KKOB reported the same classification in its account of the release: a homicide investigation pending more information.

That label is where the public record stops for now. Police have not announced any arrests. They have not announced any charges. They have not identified the man who died, and they have not said what caused his death.

What is still unknown

The open questions in this case are the basic ones. Who was the man. What happened in the parking lot before the restraint. How he was restrained, and for how long. What medical condition, if any, he was in when the family brought him to the clinic on High Resort Boulevard.

Rio Rancho sits just northwest of Albuquerque and is one of the largest cities in Sandoval County. A death in a clinic parking lot in the middle of a Thursday morning is the kind of call the city rarely sees, and the police release gave residents few answers beyond the fact of the investigation itself.

The investigation is ongoing, police said. Anyone who reads the release is left with the same position as the detectives: a young man is dead, the people closest to him were the ones holding him down, and the reason he died has not been made public yet.