Police say two brothers who often fought were at a relative’s home when one was killed.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A homicide investigation in northeast Albuquerque is centered on an aunt’s apartment where police say repeated fights between two brothers ended Feb. 26 with Benjamin Chess fatally shooting Adam Chess with a rifle.
The setting is crucial to understanding why the case has drawn attention beyond the basic arrest. Detectives say the brothers were not meeting in a public place or during a random confrontation, but inside a family home where arguments were already familiar. That background, combined with the suspect’s own statements about family strain, places the shooting inside a longer domestic conflict that now must be sorted out in court.
According to police, Benjamin Chess, 55, had been staying with the brothers’ aunt at her apartment on Palo Verde Drive NE. Adam Chess, 54, would sometimes come over to stay there as well. The aunt told detectives that when both men were at the apartment, arguments were common. On the night of the shooting, she said, she heard them arguing again and saw Adam charge at Benjamin. She did not report seeing either man with a weapon at that point. She then went inside. A short time later, she heard a loud bang. When she looked again, police said, she saw Benjamin place a brown rifle into a laundry basket in the hallway. Her account did not explain how the rifle was first brought into the confrontation, but it did place the gun inside a domestic scene already marked by tension.
The final minutes unfolded quickly after that. A neighbor called 911 after Adam emerged from the apartment and said his brother had shot him, according to police. Officers were dispatched around 6:55 p.m. on Feb. 26 to the 2800 block of Palo Verde Drive NE. By the time they arrived, Adam was outside Apartment A with a gunshot wound and was later pronounced dead. Police said Benjamin was lying next to him on the ground. That image became one of the defining details of the case: one brother mortally wounded in the parking lot area, the other beside him as officers moved in. Investigators said Benjamin admitted he had fired the shot, though they have not publicly described any attempt to render aid or any exchange between the brothers after Adam left the apartment.
Benjamin’s interview with detectives added motive language but not much clarity about intent. Police said he described Adam as a daily drinker who often started confrontations and called him the black sheep of the family. He said that behavior was “slowly killing us all.” At the same time, investigators said, Benjamin claimed memory gaps around the most critical actions. He said he remembered Adam returning to the apartment and pounding on the door and remembered going down the hallway and shooting him with a rifle. But he said he did not remember removing the rifle from a bedroom case or loading it with ammunition. He also said he did not remember removing the spent casing and throwing it away. That statement gave detectives both an admission and a possible preview of a defense built around stress, confusion or lack of clear recollection.
The physical evidence described by police lined up with parts of the witness accounts. A neighbor told officers he saw Benjamin carry a trash bag outside while the 911 call was still in progress. After obtaining a search warrant, detectives said they found a .243-caliber shell casing inside that bag in a garbage can near the driveway. Police also recovered a .243-caliber bolt-action rifle from the hallway laundry basket. Investigators said the rifle appeared to have been cycled, suggesting the casing had been ejected after the shot. Those details became the basis for the evidence-tampering charge filed alongside the open count of murder. Authorities have not publicly released autopsy findings, lab reports or a more detailed forensic timeline.
For now, the legal process remains in its early stage. Benjamin Chess was booked into the Metro Detention Center, and early reports said prosecutors sought to hold him without bond. No future court date was listed in those first reports. An open count of murder allows prosecutors to continue the case without fixing the exact murder theory at the outset, a common step when investigators are still assembling witness statements and forensic results. Among the unresolved questions are whether the state sees any evidence of self-defense, whether prior disputes between the brothers will be introduced in court and how much weight prosecutors will place on Benjamin’s statements about being overwhelmed by the pounding at the door.
The killing remains a family homicide case rooted in a shared apartment, a history of arguments and one gunshot that prosecutors say now supports murder and tampering charges.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.