Albuquerque police ID man shot by police as suspect in retaliation killing

Police identified the man shot by an officer during a foot chase Thursday evening in Southwest Albuquerque as the suspect in a deadly shootout last year.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said on Friday that 19-year-old Julian Garcia is hospitalized in critical condition. Garcia was armed with a handgun as he was pursued through an open field near Sage and Unser SW.

Officers were trying to arrest Garcia on a warrant for murder.

One officer fired rounds from a less-lethal 40mm launcher at Garcia “but they had no effect,” and another officer shot him with his duty weapon “as he approached the backyard of a home,” Gallegos said.

He said Garcia will be booked into jail when he is released from the hospital.

The incident marked the third time Albuquerque police have shot someone in the past month.

On Feb. 12, Garcia was charged with an open count of murder — accused of shooting Ezekiel Brown, 32, “execution style” after Brown fatally shot Garcia’s uncle, James Garcia, 34, in September 2024.

On Sept. 18, police responded to gunfire in the 300 block of Grove SE, near Zuni and Louisiana, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. They found Brown dead from multiple gunshot wounds, and James Garcia died after being taken to the hospital.

Police said witnesses told them Brown asked James Garcia if he remembered him, before shooting him in the face, according to the complaint. One witness, Brown’s relative, said Brown then “began running away while smiling and laughing.”

Witnesses told police another man, later identified as Julian Garcia, opened fire on Brown, striking him, the complaint states. As Brown lay on the ground, Julian Garcia walked up and shot him from “point-blank range three times.”

Police said they were able to identify Julian Garcia as the suspect through video surveillance and social media, where they found selfies of him before and after the homicide, wearing the same shirt, except the picture taken afterward showed the shirt had apparent blood stains on it.