More Local

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
• Former Marine to serve two years in jail for killing Albuquerque robber
• Wilson-Pearce battle for U.S. Senate exemplifies party's disparity

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

An assistant grocery store manager remains in critical condition today after being deliberately struck by the vehicle of a fleeing man suspected of shoplifting, says the manager's sister, who was also injured in the West Side melee.

Judy Webb, 66, underwent brain surgery this morning at University of New Mexico Hospital - her third since she was struck shortly before noon Thursday in the parking lot of the John Brooks Supermart on Coors Boulevard Northwest, her sister, Jessie Shirm, said.

Webb remained in critical condition early today, UNMH spokesman Sam Giammo said.

Two brothers - Michael Anthony Lopez, 31, and Leonard Aaron Lopez, 25 - are charged in the incident.

Shirm said she had gone to meet her sister at the store to pick up some frozen green chile they had recently roasted.

As they prepared to leave the store, they noticed a man pushing a shopping cart loaded with two 30-packs of Bud Light out the door, and Webb asked a cashier whether the man had paid for the beer, Shirm said.

"When she said he hadn't, me and Judy went to go get him," she said.

Shirm said she grappled with the man - later identified as Leonard Lopez - as she attempted to pull one of the cases of beer out of the trunk of a car where he had put it.

She restrained him until clerks from the store came to assist her, she said.

After a quick confrontation with the sisters, the other brother - later identified as Michael Lopez - jumped into the car and began driving away, striking Webb, she said.

Shirm said it appeared that the driver turned the vehicle directly toward Webb as he sped off.

"He deliberately hit her," she said.

Shirm received bruises and sore muscles from the scuffle, but seeing her sister critically mowed down traumatized her.

"I'm shaking so much," she said. "It's terrible what has happened."

Leonard Lopez was arrested at the scene and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on charges of battery and shoplifting, Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said.

Bail is set at $1,000.

Michael Lopez was arrested Thursday night on an aggravated battery charge. He is being held at Metropolitan Detention Center in lieu of $500,000 cash-only bail.

If Webb dies, Hoffman said, he would be charged with vehicular homicide.

Webb's family members, who are no strangers to tragedy and sorrow, are keeping vigil at the hospital and hoping for the best.

"She's a very strong woman," Shirm said of her older sister, who has also survived a bout with cancer two years ago and the heartbreak of the unsolved killing of their younger sister, Jennifer Lynn Shirm, in 1985.

The 22-year-old mother of an infant son was found bludgeoned to death under brush off East Central Avenue.

The case went unsolved for 15 years until 2000, when a revitalized investigation by the Albuquerque police Cold Case Unit led to the arrest of convicted methamphetamine dealer Alex Eugene Murray.

The case collapsed, however, when DNA evidence could not conclusively link Murray to the killing. Murder charges were later dropped.

Shirm said Webb and other members of their family have worked for many years at the grocery store. Their mother, Mary Louise Shirm, worked there for 20 years, she said.