Lapel videos show Albuquerque police firing at fleeing suspect

May 3—The Albuquerque Police Department released lapel videos Friday showing two officers shooting at a fleeing vehicle in a West Side neighborhood.

APD Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock, who oversees APD's Criminal Investigation Bureau, said on March 30 officers Nathien Apodaca and Hernan Conchas opened fire on a vehicle with Alijah Archuleta, 19, and three others inside.

Archuleta, who was suspected in a drive-by shooting the day before, evaded officers on foot and police found a stolen handgun, a rifle and $18,000 in the vehicle he abandoned. Archuleta was arrested in mid-April and told police one of the bullets fired by police injured his foot.

Archuleta is behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center, facing several felony charges for firing a gun during a dispute with his girlfriend on March 29.

Hartsock said officers Apodaca and Conchas have both been with APD since 2021 and neither has been involved in a prior shooting. Conchas has not returned to duty.

Lapel video shows Apodaca doesn't begin firing — shooting through his own windshield — until he is in the vehicle and it begins moving. It's not until several seconds later and the vehicle is halfway down the block that Conchas fires a single shot.

APD's Standard Operating Procedures dictate that officers "shall not discharge a firearm at or from a moving vehicle, unless an occupant of the vehicle the officer is engaging is using deadly force, other than the vehicle itself, against the officer, or another person."

That particular directive has been part of the standard operating procedure since at least 2016.

Hartsock said officers Apodaca and Conchas told investigators they believed they saw what looked like a gun in Archuleta's hand as he got into the car. He said Apodaca told investigators he saw Archuleta raise a gun in his direction.

"It gets to about my feet and I decided to defend myself against an immediate threat. I thought I was gonna get shot," Hartsock said, quoting from Apodaca's interview with investigators.

APD Chief Harold Medina said Friday that prohibiting police from firing at moving vehicles came about as part of the department's federally mandated reform efforts.

"I think it's important that we recognize that ... these situations all have unique characteristics, and I think that's why it's so difficult for us to always look at something (as) black and white," he said. "During the course of the administrative investigation they will come to the determination if shooting at this motor vehicle was appropriate at the time, and they will have to weigh factors such as, did officers feel that there was an immediate threat towards them?"

Hartsock said the incident began when officers were called to the home where Archuleta's girlfriend lived in the 700 block of 59th, north of Fortuna. Archuleta had reportedly fired a gun outside the home a day earlier and had returned with three other people.

The girlfriend's mother asked police to intervene, and an arrest warrant had already been filed by officer Conchas for Archuleta in the previous day's shooting. Police formulated a plan to approach the home, with another officer setting spike strips in case the car fled.

Lapel video shows Conchas pulling up to the house and yelling "get on the (expletive) ground" as Archuleta and another person get into their car. Apodaca can be seen pulling up with one hand on the wheel and an AR-style pistol in the other.

As the car Archuleta was in begins to pull away from the curb, Apodaca fires several shots through his own windshield, according to lapel video. At least six seconds after Apodaca stopped shooting, as the car is more than a hundred feet away, Conchas fires a single shot.

Lapel video shows another officer using spike strips to deflate the car's tires and it was found abandoned at a park southeast of the Big I. Officers searched the nearby bosque and found a young man who was with Archuleta, but nobody else.

The man tells police, "I have no weapons," and an officer replies, "We appreciate you cooperating," as they handcuff him, according to lapel video. The man tells police, "But I was scared. You all shot. They just picked me up, I swear to God."

Hartsock said the man later told police he believed they went to the house to pick up Archuleta's belongings and "he wasn't sure why officers were shooting at them as they drove away."

He said rifle and a handgun, reported stolen in 2023, were found in the car. Hartsock said the rifle had been sold at a gun show in 2017, but no other details were available.

Officials said Archuleta was arrested on April 16 at his mother's apartment in the University area. Archuleta told police that, before he got in the car, he had moved a rifle to the back seat "so it would not be in his possession if officers captured him."

"He also said he received a minor wound on his foot that was received when officers shot at him," according to APD.