Albuquerque man died after being handcuffed by Taos County deputy

ARROYO HONDO — An Albuquerque man who was bleeding from his face and behaving erratically died a week ago during a scuffle with a Taos County deputy.

Patrick Walsh, 64, stopped breathing not long after the deputy handcuffed him face-down, according to lapel camera video the Taos County Sheriff’s Office released to the Journal.

“This is not a use of force incident,” Sheriff Steve Miera said Thursday evening. “I think (the deputy) was just trying to get him under control because he was not under arrest.”

Miera speculated that alcohol, narcotics or a pre-existing medical condition might have contributed to Walsh’s erratic behavior, his injury and his death.

He said that he believes the deputy involved, Donivan Byers, followed appropriate procedures for restraining a subject.

“At no time did he ever put any weight or pressure on his back,” Miera said.

No wrongdoing has been alleged against Byers and a cause of death for Walsh is pending autopsy.

Byers remains on active duty as the sheriff’s office looks into the incident. While the investigation is currently being handled internally, Miera said he was not ruling out the possibility of seeking assistance from an outside agency.

‘Wake up buddy’

Surveillance video from a bar, Midtown Market and Lounge in Arroyo Hondo, captured some of the lead-up to the incident, which occurred along N.M. 522 in the small valley community 10 miles north of Taos.

Videos from outside the business show that Walsh stumbled in and out of the mini-mart and bar areas of the building. Near the entrance to the mini-mart, Walsh grabbed Greg Trujillo, the business’ owner, who pushed him away.

Later, Walsh can be seen lying face-down just next to the highway, where a man with a white beard steps out of a truck to check on him alongside Trujillo.

Minutes later, the two men could be seen trying to control Walsh, who was bleeding heavily from the face and trying to crawl into the roadway while kicking at the men.

Taos County’s dispatch center relayed a 911 call for disorderly conduct around 7:23 p.m., and Byers was the first to arrive at the scene approximately 25 minutes later.

According to lapel video, Byers encountered Walsh and two other men in the middle of the roadway. The deputy immediately took Walsh by the arm and began guiding him toward a bus stop.

“I’m done, man. C’mon,” Walsh told Byers.

At the bus stop, Byers ordered Walsh repeatedly to “stop,” before the deputy pulled him sideways to the ground, telling Walsh to, “Stop, roll over.” A man with a white beard, who later told deputies he knew Walsh, assisted Byers in rolling him onto his stomach.

The man helped restrain Walsh so the deputy could handcuff him, according to the video. “Help. Help me,” Walsh yelled out.

More than a minute later, as the deputy called for assistance, the bearded man looked down at Walsh and told the deputy, “Hey, his face is starting to turn purple,” according to the video.

Byers immediately rolled Walsh over onto his back and said, “Wake up, buddy. Come on, bro,” as he called on his radio for an ambulance. The deputy then began chest compressions.

Byers told a dispatcher, “He started fighting, I put him down, put handcuffs on him, rolled him over and he was unresponsive. He didn’t hit his head with me or anything like that.

“They said he fell out of a truck at some point before we got here, and he started acting really erratic,” the deputy added. “I’m afraid he might have had a brain bleed from hitting his head.”

Byers spoke with bystanders about what preceded the call, and the bearded man told him: “It was like people were chasing him,” he said, adding that Walsh had been recently suicidal. “That’s how he was acting, like people were chasing him.”

Byers, who at this point sounded panicked, told the bystanders, “I wasn’t on his back, bro. I wasn’t any of that. (Expletive) I think he might have hit his head on the ground.”

Byers later broke into tears and said to Trujillo and a fellow deputy, “I did it by the book, bro,” he said. “I didn’t sit on his back or nothing. He shouldn’t have died like that, brother.”

“You did everything correctly,” Trujillo told him.

Medics arrived and dispatchers called in a helicopter to take Walsh to a hospital around 8:07 p.m., according to dispatch logs. But Walsh was pronounced dead at the scene.

John Miller is the Albuquerque Journal’s northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.