APD: Investigations, apprehensions in focus

Additional help on board temporarily

The Albuquerque Police Department said its investigative bureau has been temporarily reorganized — with personnel from across the agency having been brought on board — in order to “focus both on investigations and apprehension of violent offenders.” For example, Impact Section detectives will help with investigations and the Investigative Services Division, and tactical units will help with apprehensions, said Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesman.

The Impact Unit typically takes cases that don’t go to specialty units, including aggravated assaults, domestic violence, robberies, burglaries and vandalism.

“Many other units are involved,” Gallegos wrote in an email. “For example, some (Field Service Bureau) officers are temporarily reassigned to Auto Theft to help with investigations.”

The department announced the initiative — “Operation Turn the Tide” — in a news release on Friday and said it will focus on homicides, robberies and shootings.

“This is a highly focused operation that is going after known offenders who are driving the increase in violent crime in the metro area,” Chief Harold Medina said. “We are adding resources to investigate and charge offenders, while at the same time preparing to apprehend suspects who are a danger to the public.”

Gallegos said the operation was hatched at a meeting the afternoon after four officers were injured in a shootout on Aug. 19.

“APD was actively working on cases, including the Ojos Locos homicide and another homicide in which a suspect had been identified,” Gallegos said. “Federal partners agreed at that meeting to assist APD to ensure we did not lose momentum on those investigations and apprehension efforts.”

He said APD formally launched the operation Wednesday.

That same day, detectives arrested Kyle Majedi, 42, who is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and other crimes.

That investigation had started July 5 when officers were sent to an apartment complex on the 3400 block of Vail SE, near Carlisle and Gibson, for reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found Dominic Stevenson had been shot in the leg.

Two days later, at the University of New Mexico Hospital, Stevenson told officers a woman shot him, but he believed his friend’s boyfriend “Kyle” was the one who orchestrated it, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Officers were able to identify everyone involved, but Stevenson’s phone number had been disconnected and he could not be found.

Then, on Aug. 22, Stevenson was shot again — this time “through and through his cheeks” while he was at a gas station on Carlisle and Gibson.

At UNMH, an officer handed Stevenson a piece of paper — since he could not talk — and asked if he knew who shot him. According to the complaint, Stevenson wrote “Kyle” and confirmed Majedi was the person he was referring to. He said Majedi fired at him through the driver’s side window of his red Hyundai and fled the scene.

When the detective asked if Majedi had also shot him on July 5, Stevenson said no. He said that “Kyle is a big-time drug dealer” and he thinks he paid a woman in drugs to shoot him.

Gallegos said when detectives with the Gun Violence Reduction Unit and Investigative Support found Majedi, he refused to come out of a residence, so they called in tactical units. He was taken into custody.

“Inside the residence, detectives located eight firearms, some of which were homemade, (and) a large amount of firearm pieces and ammunition,” Gallegos said. “Located inside was also a grenade, a grenade casing and primers to make grenades operable. Additionally, there were six homemade silencers and other items used to make silencers.”

The second arrest Gallegos touted as part of Operation Turn the Tide was that of a homicide suspect who reportedly cut off his GPS ankle monitor last week.

Gallegos said the officers working on the operation had to change plans in order to prioritize searching for the suspect, Trey Bausby.

“Through various investigative methods, they were able to locate the subject on August 26,” Gallegos wrote in a news release. “With the assistance of tactical units participating in the operation, Bausby was taken into custody near Tramway and Central.”