Gallup police search for suspect in Pep Boys homicide

Gallup police were searching for Tyson Long, 26, in a shooting homicide that left Brandon Lee, 37, dead at the Pep Boys on Highway 491 in Gallup. Quinton White, 25, had already been arrested in the case as investigators worked to determine what happened in the daylight killing.

Police were called to the Pep Boys around 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 6, when Lee was shot and killed at the store along one of Gallup’s busiest commercial corridors. The case drew immediate attention because it unfolded at a recognizable retail stop in the city and because investigators were trying to sort out the roles of more than one person.

The arrest of White and the search for Long suggested detectives believed the shooting involved multiple participants or multiple phases of the crime. At that stage, investigators were still piecing together the sequence of events tied to Lee’s death and the circumstances that led officers to the Highway 491 scene.

For Gallup residents, the shooting underscored how quickly a violent crime at a public business could disrupt a familiar part of town. A homicide investigation at a store on a major roadway also brought a heavy law-enforcement focus to the area while officers tried to identify who else may have been involved and how the attack unfolded.

Lee’s death remained the central fact in the case: a 37-year-old man killed at a Pep Boys in broad daylight, with one suspect already under arrest and another still being sought. The investigation placed both the victim and the suspect search squarely in the middle of everyday Gallup life, where Highway 491 serves as a route many residents use for shopping and travel across the city.