APD charge Knockouts employee for possession of handgun inside liquor establishment on night of murder

ALBUQUERQUE – APD detectives charged a woman for unlawfully carrying a firearm into the Knockouts club on the night of a murder last week.

Pawnthipe Mune-Ath, 23, an employee of the Downtown nightclub, was detained the night of the fatal shooting on Dec. 19, 2023. While she was not involved in the shooting, she had a handgun in her possession inside Knockouts, which is a state-licensed liquor establishment.

Mune-Ath later told detectives she is a bartender at the nightclub, but she was not working the night of the shooting. She said she was at the club as a customer. She said she did not have the firearm when she first entered the club, but left out the back to retrieve it from her vehicle and re-entered without being checked for weapons. The firearm was not the same gun used in the murder.

Homicide detectives arrested a 16-year-old suspect and charged him with the fatal shooting of Earl Romo at Knockouts. The shooting followed a fight between two groups of individuals.

Mune-Ath is charged with unlawful carrying of a firearm in a licensed liquor establishment.

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