City manager: Threats, homicide not connected

CLOVIS — City officials on Tuesday said an early-morning shooting death at the Clovis Apartments is not connected to threatening phone calls that plagued the town for the second time in a week.

Police said David McDonald, 30, was found on the ground behind the apartment complex at 1000 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. just before 2 a.m. Tuesday.

A police news release said officers found him after responding to a report of shots fired.

The release said McDonald was shot in the right shoulder area, but died 90 minutes later at Plains Regional Medical Center.

Police did not say if a suspect had been identified or was in custody. They released no information on a possible motive for the slaying.

Multiple witnesses interviewed Tuesday at Clovis Apartments said they heard three or four gunshots in rapid succession near a tree-lined sidewalk connecting one section of the apartment complex to another. One woman said she heard the shots, jumped out of bed and took cover in her kitchen. Another resident said the shooter appeared to flee on foot.

“I was asleep when I heard four gunshots outside of my window,” said David Treuber. “When I looked out there was a guy with a black hoodie and dark pants running past the window, and then he jumped the fence. When I ran outside to see what was going on, there were people running as well to a guy laying on the ground with a gunshot to the shoulder.

“It’s not good here,” he continued. “I have two boys and we have lived here almost three years and they have been outside to play here maybe four times.”

Lionel Lassiter said he was the apartment’s sole security personnel on duty at the time of the shooting, but he hadn’t witnessed the event. He said police were on scene “shortly after it happened.”

The threatening phone calls — suggesting a bomb or mass shooting — began coming into Clovis businesses and public entities soon after noon on Tuesday.

Clovis Community College evacuated and canceled classes for the day about 1 p.m. after a call was received at the Health and Physical Education building.

“Nursing students ran out and left their stuff in there,” college President Becky Rowley said.

The caller said, “it wasn’t over yet and there was a bomb,” Rowley said.

Clovis Municipal Schools received threats at Yucca Middle School, Cameo Elementary School and the Freshman Academy. Soon after, all of the public schools went into a “level one lockdown,” said Superintendent Jody Balch.

A level one lockdown means no one may enter or leave the building. The action was taken as a precaution, on advice of Clovis police, Balch said.

Officials did not answer questions about the homicide, but City Manager Tom Phelps and Police Chief Doug Ford said it was not connected to the threatening phone calls. They did not say how they knew that.

Ford did offer advice to anyone receiving a phone threat: "We recommend they gather as much information as possible if called, be aware of their surroundings and contact us as soon as they are contacted," he wrote in an email late Tuesday afternoon.

The threatening calls received Tuesday seemed similar to those received across the city on Aug. 30.

The Eastern New Mexico News was among businesses that received a call on Tuesday and last week. The man’s voice, which appeared to be altered, said on Tuesday, “The shooting last night ... that was us.”

More than 30 local businesses and entities received calls on Aug. 30, two days after a shooting at the Clovis-Carver Public Library killed two and sent four more to the hospital.

The caller threatened another mass shooting and said bombs would explode and suggested he was connected to Nathaniel Jouett, the Clovis High School student who was arrested and charged as the lone shooter at the library.

No violence was reported in connection with the phone-call threats on Tuesday or last week.

Tuesday’s homicide is the seventh this year in the Clovis-Portales area.

— Editor David Stevens and Staff Writer David Grieder contributed to this report.