Albuquerque police detail 2024 shooting of armed robbery suspect

The two men allegedly stole a vehicle and spent the next few hours robbing employees of a gas station and cellphone store at gunpoint. When officers caught up to the pair, one gave up immediately. The other, Roberto Perez, was shot by police as he ran through a McDonald’s parking lot.

The Albuquerque Police Department on Wednesday released lapel video and gave a play-by-play of the Dec. 22 shooting, where officers Nathan Kamps and Raymond Marquez opened fire on Perez, injuring him.

Police said Perez, a convicted felon, had a gun in his hand when he was shot.

Perez was released from the hospital and booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday, charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon.

His alleged accomplice in the robberies, 35-year-old Joshua Garcia, is in jail on armed robbery, auto theft and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer charges.

It was the 13th time Albuquerque police shot at someone in 2024 and the last such shooting of the year. The shooting of Perez is still under investigation by the Multi-Agency Task Force.

Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock, with APD’s Criminal Investigation Division, said Kamps has been with the department since 2017 and has not been in any other shootings. Marquez, identified in court records, has been with APD since 2009.

During his time with APD, Marquez has shot at five people, including Perez. At least one of those prior shootings was fatal.

Hartsock said both officers are back on duty.

During an interview, Marquez told police he fired at Perez because he refused to drop the gun after multiple opportunities and “was running toward a more populated area.” Kamps, he said, told police he fired when he saw Perez start to turn toward police with the gun in his hand.

It began on the morning of Dec. 22, when someone called 911 to report their Hyundai had been stolen from their home in Southwest Albuquerque. Then, around 1 p.m., officers were called to an armed robbery at a Circle K in Northeast Albuquerque.

Thirty minutes later, police were called to an armed robbery at a Verizon store near Unser and Ladera on the West Side.

Hartsock said Perez and Garcia were identified as the suspects in surveillance video from both robberies, taking “cash and cigarettes” from the gas station and the cash register drawer from Verizon.

At 4:25 p.m., a license plate reader captured the stolen Hyundai near Pennsylvania and Comanche NE and detectives found the car nearby, following it to an AutoZone parking lot on Carlisle, north of Menaul.

Hartsock said just before 5 p.m., officers tried to detain the pair as they left the AutoZone and both took off running — Garcia through the lot and Perez back to the Hyundai. Garcia gave up when an officer pointed a rifle at him and he was taken into custody as Perez ran toward a McDonald’s.

In the lapel video, Marquez yells at Perez to drop the gun repeatedly and then, as they run in front of the McDonald’s entrance, he and Kamps open fire. Perez fell to the ground screaming, the gun several feet away, and the officers took him into custody.

Hartsock said the 9mm handgun found on Perez was loaded and had been bought in 2004 by another person. He said they are investigating how Perez got the gun.