Deputies involved in shooting
BCSO activity on E. Central part of Project Safe Neighborhoods
Witnesses say Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies — taking part in the federally funded Project Safe Neighborhoods — shot and injured a man who they had been looking for Monday morning around East Central.
Sheriff Manuel Gonzales said deputies were conducting surveillance around noon for a man wanted on a felony warrant.
He said they found the man at the Bow & Arrow Lodge on Central near Utah SE and he was armed with a gun. A foot chase ensued.
“At some point shots were fired,” Gonzales said in a briefing outside the crime scene tape. “We do not know how many shots were fired. We know the subject sustained at least one gunshot wound. We don’t know how that gunshot wound happened.”
Gonzales said he did not know if the man had fired at deputies.
But, Barry Lane, who owns a store on Utah and Central, described what he witnessed.
“I saw a gentleman run from the policemen across the street,” Lane said. “He wouldn’t stop. They fired three times. The police shot him.”
Joseph Estrada, who also owns a business across from the scene, said he heard three or four shots and went outside to see what had happened.
“The guy is laying in the street,” Estrada said. “They pick him up, cuff him and just let him sit there. You can see the whole bottom of his shirt was bleeding.”
He said about five minutes later, an ambulance came and took the man to the hospital.
The man was in surgery Monday afternoon, Gonzales said.
He said the man was wanted on a felony warrant for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. He did not identify him but said he was in his mid-30s and had been booked into jail around 40 times.
Gonzales did not say how many deputies were involved in the shooting, but he said no deputies were injured.
Eastbound Central was closed from Texas to Vermont into the evening while deputies combed through the scene. An unmarked SUV could be seen stopped in the middle of Utah SE, across from a preschool and day-care building. A small bundle of clothing lay nearby on the ground.
Gonzales said parents had been called to come pick up their children from the day care.
The Multi-Jurisdictional Metro Shoot Team made up of BCSO, the Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico State Police and the Rio Rancho Police Department will investigate the shooting.
Gonzales couldn’t say Monday afternoon how many deputies will be put on paid administrative leave, which is standard in cases in which law enforcement officers fire their weapons.
The deputies had been working with the U.S. Marshals Service on the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhood, Gonzales said. He said project focuses on violent offenders.
“We’re going to continue to do proactive law enforcement throughout the metro area,” Gonzales said. “It’s in the best interest of every person who is wanted … to turn themselves in and comply with law enforcement.”