Man’s arrest connected to fatal hit-and-run of teen
15-year-old was walking home from movie theater
Detectives have arrested a man in the theft of a pickup truck that police suspect was involved in a hit-and-run crash that killed 15-year-old Manuel Tapia on the West Side two weeks ago.
Juan Carlos Ramirez is named as a “person of interest” in a vehicular homicide, according to a search warrant filed in 2nd Judicial District Court.
Ramirez was arrested Monday and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on a charge of unlawful taking of a motor vehicle. Prosecutors have filed a motion to hold Ramirez until trial.
Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos would not say whether Ramirez, 30, is a suspect
in the July 17 crash that killed Tapia, and Ramirez has not been charged in the crime.
However, he is charged with stealing the truck that police believe hit Tapia.
Tapia was walking home from seeing a movie at Cottonwood Mall and was crossing Coors Bypass at Ellison just after midnight when he was fatally struck. Police believe the vehicle that hit him was a dark-blue 2015 GMC truck stolen from outside a hotel days before.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court, a woman called 911 on July 14 to report her truck had been stolen from the Drury Inn, near Interstate 25 and Jefferson. The woman also told police $300 was withdrawn from her bank account at Route 66 Casino hours later.
After the fatal crash, a detective collected surveillance video at the hotel and casino, and police say the man seen stealing the truck and using the card matched Ramirez’s description.
Gallegos has said the truck fled when officers tried to pull it over on Coors Boulevard the night of the crash and the officers involved said they pursued it for only about four seconds.
However, a witness, Helen Taylor, told the Journal she watched a police cruiser — its lights engaged — follow a pickup truck up Coors Bypass toward Rio Rancho and watched as the two vehicles ran through a red light at Ellison. Taylor said she did not see the crash but found Tapia lying in the street at Ellison and called 911.
Pursuing stolen vehicles is against APD policy, and an internal affairs investigation has been opened into the crash.
APD released photos of individuals “believed to have information about (the) hit-and-run” taken from surveillance at Route 66 casino, as well as a description of the stolen truck, a darkblue 2015 GMC Sierra with New Mexico license plate 716TJC.
Soon after, a warrant was issued for Ramirez’s arrest. The criminal complaint lists the same license plate for the stolen truck that police had been looking for in connection with the hit-and-run.
According to online court records, Ramirez has a lengthy criminal history stretching back to 2012, including arrest for trafficking, aggravated assault against a peace officer, aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer, receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles and residential burglary, among other charges.
Throughout that period, Ramirez served some time in jail, was sentenced to stretches of probation and had a few of the cases dropped.
Tapia’s death prompted an outpouring of grief from the community. Tapia’s family, dozens of teenagers and others gathered for a vigil at Seville Park in Northwest Albuquerque hours after the hit-and-run. Family and friends described Tapia, a sophomore at Cibola High School, as a talented artist and sharp dresser who had a predilection for superheroes.