21-year-old Cristian Bencomo has been taken into custody after shooting his stepmother as a graduation ceremony was taking place on Wednesday, May 8.
At about 5 p.m., authorities were called to the event for what was first thought to be an active shooter. However, later when officers arrived to the location, they found that one gunshot had been fired by one person.
Victoria Bencomo was attending her son’s graduation ceremony when she was harmed and transported to a medical facility with non-life threatening wounds.
Cristian Bencomo was apprehended and charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, aggravated assault, and two counts of unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon.
Authorities say that a graduation was happening for Southwest Secondary Learning Center. When her stepson had gotten to the location, she began to hug him, and he retrieved a firearm and shot her in the neck. Those close by were able to detain the man until authorities arrived.
“As you can imagine, there was a lot of chaos at the time. It’s going to take detectives a while to check their potential witnesses,” one official noted.
A motive for the shooting isn’t known at this time.
