Police have identified the armed man who officers shot at — putting a bullet in his foot — before using a Taser to detain him Wednesday night following a domestic dispute in Northwest Albuquerque.
Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said doctors pulled a bullet from the foot of Francisco Macias, 32, before he was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Thursday morning.
Police initially said late Wednesday that Macias was not hit by the officers’ gunfire.
Gallegos said Macias at first complained about a cut on his foot but refused medical attention. He said Macias later complained about pain in his toe which led doctors to find the projectile.
Macias is charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the incident, in which he allegedly fired a gun repeatedly.
Macias has no criminal history aside from a domestic violence arrest in 2017 but the charges were dismissed when the victim didn’t cooperate.
Police said the 911 call about a domestic disturbance came in around 6:30 p.m. but no officers were available to respond. The call, from the 4700 block of Glendale NW, was upgraded in priority level when dispatch was told a man had a gun.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:
Officers responded around 7:03 p.m. and, by that point, it was reported a man “possibly on drugs and — not acting normal” was firing a gun in the front yard. Police found Macias armed outside a home and, along with two of Macias’ friends, told him to drop the gun.
Police said Macias hid and “then reappeared” before an officer yelled that he was pointing a gun, leading officers to open fire on him. Macias ran toward the back of the house where his friend wrestled the gun from him and threw it over a fence.
Macias then grabbed his other friend and, according to police, tried to use him as a human shield before police used a Taser and less-lethal sponge round to detain Macias.
Afterward, one of Macias’ friends told police they came to the house and saw Macias waving a gun and firing it “negligently.” Police interviewed Macias and he told them he got home around 5 p.m. and began throwing out his mother’s liquor because he wanted her to quit drinking.
He said he hugged his mother but she ran to his aunt’s house and he followed, pushing his aunt at one point. Macias’ told police his cousin then approached him in a “threatening manner” so he armed himself with a gun.
Macias said he fired the gun into the air to scare his cousin before two friends showed up and tried to calm him down. When officers showed up, Macias said he did not put the gun away because “he did not believe he did anything.”
Macias told police one friend took the gun from him and he used the other as a human shield “so he would not get shot by police.”
