Timeline of a tragedy: A minute-by-minute account of Farmington, New Mexico mass shooting

FARMINGTON — The mass shooting engineered by an 18-year-old Farmington High School student last week may have claimed the lives of three female victims and left a lasting impact on San Juan County, but the event itself was relatively short lived, lasting a mere 10 minutes.

Here is a timeline of those May 15 events put together from information provided by the Farmington Police Department and video from home surveillance cameras and police body footage.

10:56 a.m.

Clad in a bulletproof vest he modified with steel plates and carrying three weapons — an AR-15 rifle, a .22 caliber pistol and a 9 millimeter pistol — Beau Wilson, who is due to graduate the next day from Farmington High School, steps out on the front porch of the home he shares with his father on North Dustin Avenue between Ute Street and Navajo Street, raises the rifle to his shoulder and begins firing at passing motorists.

Over the next couple minutes, his barrage of shots would claim the lives of three women driving past him on Dustin ― Shirley Voita, 79; Melody Ivie, 73; and Gwendolyn Schofield, 98.

10:58 a.m.

A motorist driving north on Dustin in a red car comes under fire from Wilson, stops, turns around and begins heading south, honking their horn and warning approaching drivers of the danger.

Wilson pauses from firing his rifle long enough to shout, “Come kill me!” before unleashing another volley of shots at homes in the area.

10:59 a.m.

Farmington police officers are dispatched to the area of Ute Street and North Dustin Avenue after the San Juan County Communications Authority’s dispatch center gets flooded with hundreds of calls from people reporting a shooter.

After nearly emptying his rifle, Wilson tosses his AR-15 — a weapon he purchased legally in November 2022 shortly after turning 18 — into some nearby bushes and leaves his yard, walking south on Dustin. He's firing shots from the two handguns he obtained from his father’s house. Several motorists are wounded.

Police later would estimate that by the time he left his father’s house, Wilson already had fired more than 140 rounds.

11:02 a.m.

Farmington police officers begin to arrive at the scene. An officer identified only as Officer 1 in his body camera video speaks into his radio, informing dispatch he is at the corner of Dustin and Navajo Street. As he begins advancing south on foot, he encounters a man and advises him to take cover behind a nearby car parked on the street. The officer quickly spots Wilson a block south of him in front of a neighborhood church and calls in his position to the dispatcher.

“I have eyes on the suspect,” he reports. “He’s wearing all black, skinny. He’s in front of (First Presbyterian Church of Farmington at 900 N. Dustin Ave.) walking southbound on Dustin.”

Officer 1 then shouts at Wilson, “Farmington police! Let’s see your hands!” As Wilson continues moving south, the officer lifts his rifle to his shoulder and begins running toward the shooter.

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11:04 a.m.

Officer 1 radios into dispatch again, reporting, “He just took off, directly south of the church. More shots are being fired.”

The officer continues chasing Wilson even as the sound of police sirens can be heard moving closer to his position. Seconds later, a Farmington police vehicle driven by Sgt. Rachel Discenza and a black pickup truck driven by a plainclothes Farmington officer race by Officer 1’s position to his right.

As new officers begin to emerge from their stopped vehicles, Officer 1 calls out to them, “Right here, follow me,” reporting that the shooter is positioned at a white house to the south of them, later identified as the First Church of Christ, Scientist at 713 N. Dustin Ave.

Officer 1 sprints by Discenza on her left, and she joins him and two other officers as the group moves through the First Presbyterian Church parking lot, initially taking cover behind a vegetation-covered fence. The officers move along the fence toward the street, then emerge onto the sidewalk on the west side of Dustin Avenue, weapons raised as they seek to engage Wilson, now less than a block away from them. Discenza is third in line, with Officer 1 taking the lead.

11:06 a.m.

The four Farmington officers and Wilson engage in an exchange of gunfire. By now, Wilson has nearly emptied his .22 caliber pistol and discarded it, leaving him only with his 9 mm. He also has taken off his bulletproof vest.

Shortly after the exchange begins, Discenza staggers and calls out, “I’m shot!” while falling to the pavement. She tries to regain her footing but falls again as the gunfire continues.

Officer 1, armed with a rifle and leading the four Farmington officers, fires several shots at Wilson from an exposed position in the middle of Dustin. He stops firing, lowering his rifle slightly and calls out to his fellow officers.

“Subject down! Subject is down! Cease fire! Cease fire!” he shouts.

Officer 1 and a plainclothes officer quickly approach Wilson’s prone body, weapons still raised. Officer 1 calls out, “Do not move! Do not move!” before handing his handcuffs to the plainclothes officer, who gets down on his knees and cuffs Wilson’s hands. Wilson appears unresponsive.

Officer 1 lifts his radio to his mouth and reports to dispatch, “Subject is down. He is secured. … Officer down.”

Only 38 seconds have elapsed since the final, fatal exchange of gunfire began.

Steve Hebbe, chief of the Farmington Police Department, says at a subsequent media briefing that officers administered CPR to Wilson at the scene, but his gunshot wounds proved fatal and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

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By the time he was taken down, Hebbe says, Wilson had emptied his only remaining weapon, the 9 mm handgun.

The toll from his abbreviated but deadly rampage includes the three dead women, two of whom died at the scene while one died later at the San Juan Regional Medical Center. Wilson also shot Discenza and a New Mexico State Police officer, both of whom were treated at the hospital and released.

A total of four other patients were treated at the hospital for injuries they suffered from exploding windshield or window glass when Wilson fired at their vehicles, according to hospital spokeswoman Laura Werbner. Police said various other motorists were treated by medics at the scene of the shooting, also for injuries from exploding glass.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 ormeasterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.