Albuquerque police detail fatal shooting of man holed up in shed

Police tried to talk Derek Pickett into surrendering from a shed for hours, trying to call him 50 times. At the tail end of the standoff, Pickett reached for the drop phone and, with the other hand, put a gun to his head.

Simultaneously, a SWAT officer fired a lethal bullet as other officers fired a less-lethal round and flashbang at Pickett.

The 44-year-old died at the scene.

On Friday, the Albuquerque Police Department detailed the Aug. 17 fatal shooting of Pickett, which began when an officer chased him after he shoplifted and escalated when police say Pickett brandished a gun and told the officer he “can’t go back to jail.”

APD Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock said officer Truitt Bushnell exchanged gunfire with Pickett after he first holed up in the shed, but no one was struck. Hartsock said officer Robert Sanchez fired the fatal shot several hours later.

He said Bushnell, who joined APD in 2023, has not returned to duty, but Sanchez — who has been with APD since 2015 and killed two men in previous shootings — is back on duty.

The incident was the ninth APD shooting of the year and the sixth that was fatal.

Echoing past statements, Police Chief Harold Medina said it was a large concern for him that more lower-level offenses, like auto theft and shoplifting, have led to the suspect pulling a gun on officers. He said that escalation combined with drug use, as Pickett was found with methamphetamine, “are two very huge recipes for tragedy.”

“We hate to see an incident like this over shoplifting escalate to this point, but at the same time, our officers have a job to do, and as these individuals, their actions escalate, our officers’ response will also escalate,” Medina said.

Hartsock said around 2:20 p.m., an officer on an unrelated call chased Pickett after he shoplifted $47 worth of merchandise from a Family Dollar store on Broadway SE, south of Coal. During the chase, Pickett dropped the items he shoplifted and showed the pursuing officer that he had a gun before fleeing into the neighborhood.

APD said a landscaper told officers he saw Pickett run into a shed in a backyard in the 400 block of Arno SE, a few blocks northeast of the Family Dollar. Officer Bushnell and other police surrounded the yard and tried to get Pickett to surrender.

“We’re officers out here, we’re just as worried as you are. I understand this is scary and frustrating, but we can get through this man, talk to me,” Bushnell tells Pickett in lapel video.

Bushnell told Pickett he didn’t want to shoot him, as Pickett asks them to let him leave, but Bushnell tells Pickett that’s not possible, according to lapel video. Then a shot is fired by Pickett, and Bushnell fires back before telling officers he was not hit.

“Hey man, please stop shooting at me,” Bushnell told Pickett.

APD said around 4:16 p.m., the SWAT team took over and tried 50 times to make contact over the next few hours through a phone placed at the door of the shed for Pickett to use to talk to police, “but Pickett never responded.” At 6:25 p.m., Pickett opened the shed door and grabbed the drop phone, a gun in his other hand.

Split-screen video of the APD drone camera and officer Sanchez’s lapel video showed Pickett put the gun to his own head and held it there while saying something inaudible to police. As Pickett held the gun to his head, Sanchez can be seen taking the safety off his rifle and firing a single shot.

Drone video showed Pickett immediately started screaming and soon fell to the floor as other officers fired a less-lethal foam round and a flashbang at Pickett. With Pickett motionless on the ground, Sanchez yelled, “Stop, or I will shoot you again.”

Hartsock said Sanchez later told investigators that he saw Pickett “reveal a firearm in his right hand and began to raise it from his hip, aiming towards ... SWAT team members believing that the suspect was going to shoot him and other officers.”

He said the gun Pickett wielded had been bought by him in 2020 and had not been involved in any other shootings. Hartsock said a pipe and methamphetamine were also found on Pickett.

Medina said one takeaway from the incident: lock your shed.

“We all, as everyday citizens, can help our officers avoid these situations if we just thought about it ... Today I am going to lock my shed, and today I urge everybody in Albuquerque, if you want to help our officers avoid these deadly situations and hopefully maybe save an officer’s life someday, take the time to go outside and just lock your shed,” he said.