Police arrest teen in machete attack

Cop racing to scene plowed into a car, killing 6-year-old boy

Police on Saturday arrested the 15-year-old accused of wielding a machete in a Northeast Heights grocery store — the call an Albuquerque police officer was racing to when he slammed into a car carrying a family, killing a 6-year-old boy.

Officer Simon Drobik said the incident involving Keisean Anderson, 15, was the “epicenter of the whole chain of events.”

Police said last week that employees saw Anderson in the alcohol section of the Albertson’s near Eubank and Candelaria and approached him to ask for his ID. Anderson, according to a criminal complaint, pulled out a machete when employees confronted him. An employee who was on the phone with 911 dispatchers followed Anderson as he left the store, and Anderson “turned and charged” and began punching the employee in the face, loosening his teeth.

Officer Johnathan McDonnell was responding to the 911 call about the machete-wielding teen and was on Eubank with his emergency lights on when he collided with Antoinette Suina’s car as she turned left onto Indian School. She and her children, Ariana Suina, 9, and Joel Suina, 6, were critically injured in the wreck. Joel was taken off life support Thursday night.

McDonnell’s femur and ankle were both broken. Drobik declined to give an update on his condition and said McDonnell “asked us to give him some time.”

Both vehicles appear to have had green lights at the time of the collision.

Police released video footage of the incident asking for tips on Friday. Tips that poured in led them to Anderson, who was on juvenile probation for property crime charges, Drobik said.

Weeks before the machete incident, Drobik said, Anderson was one of a group four teen boys who broke into an Albuquerque Police Department marked vehicle parked outside an officer’s home near Eubank and Comanche.

Two boys were caught later, and one had the officer’s Emergency Response Team equipment, according to a criminal complaint. Later, a confidential source said Anderson was also present during the break-in but managed to flee before officers arrived.

Anderson was arrested Saturday on warrants connected to both incidents.