Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
Warning: This article contains graphic images and video which some readers may find distressing.
CCTV from inside a New Mexico courtroom has revealed the moment a victim's family members allegedly attacked her accused killer.
On January 11, 2024, 23-year-old Alianna Farfan was fatally shot in her apartment in Northeast Heights, Albuquerque.
A month later, Farfan's ex-boyfriend, Alexander Ortiz, 21, was arrested and charged in connection to the fatal shooting.
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The City of Albuquerque Police's press release on the incident states officers responded to the apartment in the evening and found Farfan in the bedroom with a gunshot wound and having passed away.
The report states: "Homicide detectives learned from friends and family that Farfan and Ortiz had an abusive relationship and Ortiz was upset with Farfan the day of the shooting. Farfan lived at the apartment and allowed several friends to stay there because she feared being alone, according to a relative.
"On the night of the shooting, friends eventually told detectives that Farfan and Ortiz were in Farfan’s bedroom with the door closed. They heard a single gunshot. They kicked open the bedroom door and saw that Farfan had been shot in the face. They said Ortiz had already left through the window of the bedroom."
The report adds the offender 'reportedly ran out of the window of the apartment wearing a ski mask and a black hoodie', an arrest warrant was later issued for Ortiz and he was charged with murder - to which he pleaded not guilty to in March.
On Friday (January 31) Ortiz appeared at Bernalillo County Courthouse for a plea hearing which saw a brawl break out, with Farfan's step-dad and uncle allegedly jumping over the courtroom boundary separating the public from suspects and rushing towards the suspect.
Footage - shared to YouTube by ABC 7 Chicago - shows the moment a man hops over the boundary and starts heading straight for Ortiz.
Another man follows soon after and a third also gets involved too before the brawl is broken up by an official brandishing a taser.
Later on in the clip, one of the men can be seen wiping the face of the first man who's being cuffed by authorities.
Court documents state the two men who leapt over the barriers as being relatives of Farfan - uncle Carlos Lucero and step-father Pete Ysasi - and that Ortiz was left with 'visible lacerations' after the incident.
Lucero is reported by ABC 7 Chicago as saying: "It was worth every moment. He killed my niece like a coward."
Ysasi and Lucero were allegedly taken into custody and charged with battery, NBC reports.
Ortiz's next hearing is reportedly set for tomorrow (February 7).
