Man charged in shooting that left bystander dead in Albuquerque apartment

Sep. 28—Police say a man upset about not being let into an apartment opened fire on the building and killed a woman inside late last month in Southeast Albuquerque.

Houston Coate, 33, is charged with an open count of murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at an occupied building and possession of a firearm by a felon in the Aug. 29 death of a woman who has not been identified.

Coate was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday. It is unclear in online court records who his attorney is.

Officers responded around 6:45 p.m. to a shooting at an apartment in the 1000 block of Valencia SE, near San Mateo and Gibson, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Police found the woman shot in the head with a cellphone nearby that had a bullet hole through it.

Police said they found five .40-caliber bullet casings in the courtyard outside the apartment. Witnesses told officers a man had come banging on the door, asking for his things, and then began shooting when nobody would let him inside.

One man told police the shooter went by "Houston" and had stolen a .40-caliber gun from the apartment days earlier, according to the complaint. The man said "Houston" had left a bag at the apartment and had come back for it the day of the shooting.

Police said the man identified Coate as the shooter from a photograph and told officers he had seen him through the peephole before the gunfire.

Detectives viewed surveillance footage of the shooter and found he matched the physical description of Coate to include tattoos on his right arm, according to the complaint.