New Mexico teen bought AR-style rifle legally before shooting spree

The gunman who shot dead three elderly women as he prowled a New Mexico neighbourhood firing at cars this week had legally purchased an assault-style rifle, one of three weapons he used in the rampage, a month after he turned 18, police said on Tuesday.

The suspect, whose shooting spree on Monday morning through a residential area of Farmington, New Mexico, ended when police shot him dead, was publicly identified on Tuesday as 18-year-old Beau Wilson, a student at Farmington High School.

Police said Wilson stalked a quarter-mile stretch of roadway on foot firing indiscriminately at cars, with some homes also being hit, before police confronted him outside a church, exchanging gunfire with Wilson to halt his advance.