A criminal complaint details the road rage incident that ended in the deadly shooting of a 4-year-old girl in Albuquerque Tuesday.

Tony Torrez, 31, is facing an open count of murder and several other charges in connection to the death of Lilly Garcia.

“This is possibly one of the most wanton and atrocious acts as alleged in the history of this city. It is clearly a crime of violence,” Judge Chris Schultz told Torrez at his first appearance Thursday. “If members of the motoring public receive gunfire for a perceived slight on the highway, I don’t know who is safe.”

Judge Schultz kept Torrez’s bond at $650,000 cash only.

The complaint states the girl’s father, Alan Garcia, was driving westbound on Interstate 40 when a red Toyota cut him off and blocked him from exiting at Unser. Garcia told authorities he threw his hands in the air and gestured toward the driver, calling him, “f***ing idiot.”

Garcia then observed the driver pull into the far south lane approaching the driver’s side of his vehicle. According to the complaint, the driver said something and Garcia accelerated his vehicle to put distance between the two vehicles.

Garcia said he then heard two shots strike his truck and his 7-year-old son say, “she’s bleeding.”

The complaint states Garcia heard a third shot and began to swerve and accelerate in an attempt to distance himself from the other vehicle. The Toyota continued to pursue them westbound and Garcia slammed on his brakes. As the Toyota passed, Garcia said he heard another shot.

Garcia stopped his truck in the shoulder and called 911 as he attempted to render aid to his daughter, who had been shot in the head. The child later died at UNM Hospital.

The next morning, police received a call from an anonymous person who identified the shooter as Tony Torrez.

Torrez allegedly told the tipster that he shot the girl on I-40. The tipster gave police two possible addresses for Torrez.

Wednesday afternoon, officers arrested Torrez near Central and Sunset.

Albuquerque police were able to obtain warrants for Torrez’s home in the 7600 block of Saltbrush SW. When they searched the home, they found the suspect red/maroon Toyota they had been searching for inside Torrez’s garage. A warrant was also signed so police could search the vehicle.

Police say they also recovered the gun believed to have been used in Lilly’s shooting death at Torrez’s home.

Torrez is scheduled to face a judge Thursday afternoon.

NBC Nightly News spoke with Lilly’s grieving parents Thursday. They are overcome by the outpouring of support from the Albuquerque community.

“The amazing support that Albuquerque, the state of New Mexico, all over the country — has contacted my husband, myself, my family, it’s just been, um…just umm…overwhelming,” Lilly’s mother, Veronica, said. “And I thank everybody from the bottom of my heart for their prayers.”

“I don’t know…I have no words to express my gratitude for everybody really coming unfortunately together for such a tragic event,” her father, Alan, said. “I don’t wish this on anybody.”

A candlelight vigil will take place for Lilly Saturday at Civic Plaza in Albuquerque at 6:30 p.m. More information on the vigil is available here. A GoFundMe page has also been set up for the family.

KOB spoke with MDC spokeswoman Nataura Powdrell Thursday evening about a rumor going around Facebook that Torrez had either been released from jail or is set to be released soon.

Powdrell reiterated that Torrez is still in jail and will have to pay the $650,000 cash-only bond in order to get out.

This story originally appeared at KOB.com

ALBUQUERQUE, NM — A person of interest in Tuesday’s road rage shooting death of a 4-year-old girl confessed to police he committed the shooting Wednesday evening after he was taken into custody around 3:30 p.m. near Central and Sunset, according to Albuquerque police.

Albuquerque police say 31-year-old Tony Torrez confessed to the murder of 4-year-old Illiana “Lilly” Garcia Wednesday night.

Torrez is charged with an open count of murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, assault with the intent to commit a violent felony, shooting at or from a motor vehicle, child abuse, child abuse resulting in death and tampering with evidence.

He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center on a $650,000 cash-only bond.

Torrez does have a criminal record but court records show all cases have either been dismissed for various reasons or he has been found not guilty of all charges, save a speeding ticket.

Police say Lilly’s father, Alan Garcia, had just picked Lilly and his 7-year-old son up from school and were attempting to exit westbound I-40 onto Coors when Torrez’s vehicle cut across traffic and forced him out of his lane.

Torrez and Alan exchanged words, after which Torrez pulled out a gun and shot at Alan’s truck, hitting Lilly at least once in the head.

Wednesday, an anonymous caller told detectives they knew who the shooter was and gave them Torrez’s name. Paired with other tips, detectives were able to track him down.

Garcia was shot in the head during the incident near I-40 and Unser Tuesday afternoon around 3 p.m. She later died at the hospital.

The vehicle Torrez was in before being taken into custody Wednesday afternoon was a green Lexus. It is not the same car police described as the suspect’s vehicle, which was a red Toyota sedan.

APD spokesman Tanner Tixier said officers followed tips to a home in the Westgate area of Albuquerque and set up surveillance. There, they discovered a man who matched the description of the suspect released by police earlier Wednesday.

Detectives followed Torrez and initiated a traffic stop near the old K-Mart at Central and Sunset. Tixier said the man was taken into custody without any incident, according to officers who were at the scene.

Tixier said police are working to obtain warrants on the vehicle the man was arrested in, as well as the home he came out of in Westgate. Tixier also said the suspect red sedan used in Tuesday’s shooting may be in the home’s garage. After the search warrant for the home is signed by a judge, police will search the home to figure out if the vehicle is in the garage, according to Tixier.

Should the suspect vehicle be in the garage, a warrant will be obtained to search it as well.

Tixier said officers and everyone else involved feels a “huge sense of relief” at the person of interest’s arrest.

Police did not say if they had recovered the suspect vehicle in Torrez’s garage.

At a news conference just an hour before the person of interest was taken into custody, Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden said the police department, FBI and other agencies were working around the clock to catch the suspect.

A GoFundMe page for Lilly has been set up and has so far raised tens of thousands of dollars.

Rewards offered from the Mayor’s Office, Albuquerque City Council, FBI, CrimeStoppers and U.S. Marshals has reached a total of $36,000.

Alan Garcia posted to Facebook around the time it was announced a person of interest was arrested:

“I’m not sure what anyone can do for me at the moment. If your heart is good and your intentions are genuine any and all help would be appreciated. I know Lily would’ve wanted that all of you that know her no she was the light of my life she had away about her it was too mature for her age she was far more wiser than I will ever be she had such a big heart for everybody she definitely changed my world my little girl showed me how to truly love regardless of what people thought about me

peace and love peace and love and everybody peace and love

My little baby would sing this all the time.”

A candlelight vigil will take place for Lilly Saturday at Civic Plaza in Albuquerque at 6:30 p.m. More information on the vigil is available here.

This is a developing news story; stay posted to KOB.com and KOB Eyewitness News 4 for the latest information.

This breaking news story was originally published at KOB.com

ALBUQUERQUE — A 4-year-old girl died Tuesday night after being shot in the head in what police called a road rage incident on I-40 near Unser.

The highway was shut down all evening and reopened just before 9 p.m. after being closed for almost six hours.

Police say they are searching for a maroon or dark red Toyota sedan and describe the shooter as a white male, possibly Hispanic, who has short, dark hair and a goatee. Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward for information and asks people to call (505)-843-7867.

View: Suspect and Vehicle Info

“This should have never happened. This is a complete disrespect of human life, Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden said in an evening news conference. “We’re starting to see this throughout our nation, and this is something that should not be happening in Albuquerque, New Mexico – let alone anywhere else in the United States.”

“It’s 100 percent preventable. It did not have to happen, and we need to rise up as a community and say enough is enough,” Eden continued.

He urged witnesses to come forward, saying witnesses had thus far given conflicting information.

“We are in desperate need of help to find this suspect,” he said.

“It’s a terrible, tragic loss, and it shouldn’t have ever happened,” Eden continued. “This is one of those crimes which is unexplainable. There is no way to explain your way out of this.”

The girl died after being transported to UNM Hospital after the shooting. Sources told KOB the family is from Albuquerque.

APD spokesman Simon Drobik said a Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy pulled up alongside a car that was stopped on I-40 around 3 p.m. and discovered the girl shot inside the vehicle. The girl’s mother and father were also in the vehicle at the time, but were not injured in the shooting, which Drobik said stemmed from road rage.

“The dad explained there was some type of road rage incident. A car pulled up beside them and started firing rounds into the car,” Drobik said.

Drobik said the two cars were traveling westbound on I-40 when shots were fired from one vehicle to another.

Drobik said it was unclear exactly where the shots were fired, but that police are investigating along I-40 from Coors to 98th Street.

The police spokesman told KOB they did have a description of the suspect’s vehicle but had not located it as of 10:30 p.m.

Jonelle Tafoya says she was driving her daughter home around the time of the incident on a nearly-deserted I-40.

“We were actually behind the two vehicles that were in the middle of the road rage incident: red truck, red sedan,” she recounted. “The red truck was not allowing the red car to pass [and] kept swerving from lane to lane to keep the vehicle behind them.”

Fearing something bad was going to happen, Tafoya got off at Coors and dropped her daughter off at home. She later found out how the incident ended.

“I got the notification that something had occurred on my phone that a child had been shot in the head at Unser and I-40, and all I could think was, ‘oh my God. That was it exactly. That was probably the road rage incident we had seen.'”

She shared her information with Chief Eden as soon as his news conference was over.

A red pickup truck was seen at the scene where the incident ended, but it is still unclear who was driving the truck during the incident.

There was a bullet hole in the truck’s back windshield.

This story was originally published at KOB.com

Warning: The video above contains some graphic images and language. Viewer discretion is advised.

Lapel camera footage reveals an Albuquerque police officer purposely swerved and crashed into a man accused of trying to run over officers on several occasions in order to finally take him into custody.

On June 4, 33-year-old Danan Gabaldon was tracked by five Albuquerque Police Department officers in southwest Albuquerque. Two weeks earlier, on Memorial Day, officers shot at him after he was cornered in an apartment parking lot driving a stolen car. He escaped the Memorial Day incident.

And months earlier, in March, he was arrested after a high-speed pursuit in the South Valley in which he tried to hit BCSO deputies.

The afternoon of June 4, the officers who tracked Gabaldon made sure they apprehended him at any cost.

After months of waiting for public records requests for lapel camera video from the June 4 incident, APD handed over the footage Friday.

The footage was edited by APD to blur out undercover officers, but at times, the entire video is blurred. Another edit appears to speed up the lapel camera of an officer in an undercover truck as he swerves into Gabaldon, who was fleeing officers after they confronted him and shot at him in the stolen vehicle.

When the officers finally confronted him in the 8400 block of Camino San Martin SW, APD says he hit two undercover cars and at least two officers with the stolen vehicle. Officers fired bean bags at him as he fled, and bullet holes were seen riddling the stolen vehicle.

But despite the crashes, Gabaldon, a repeat offender, managed to get out and run. Officers are heard ordering bean bags and Tasers on him as he flees and telling fellow officers to “stay cool.”

But as he ran off, the officer in the truck took notice, hopped back in his vehicle, and ran Gabaldon down.

Once the video is slowed down, Gabaldon’s head can be seen smashing into the truck as it hits him.

A bystander’s video was also included in the public records release that shows the moments before Gabaldon was hit.

After he is hit by the truck, a different officer’s lapel camera shows officers using Tasers on him and one officer shoving his elbow into Gabaldon’s bleeding head as they try to arrest him.

It again raises the question of where the line is drawn with APD’s reigned-in use-of-force rules implemented in conjunction with an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, though Gabaldon was a repeat car thief with a history of trying to elude and harm police officers.

Gabaldon was charged with 12 felonies and four misdemeanors for the police attacks and faces further burglary charges for a separate incident.

On June 22, District Court Judge Briana Zamora revoked Gabaldon’s bond, saying he was a flight risk and dangerous. He had previously cut off a GPS ankle monitor. He was indicted by a grand jury for the March incident and entered a not guilty plea in that case.

He remains at the Metropolitan Detention Center on a no-bond hold.

This story was originally published at KOB.com