Albuquerque police sergeant injured after crash with man in stolen car

An Albuquerque police sergeant was hospitalized after a man in a stolen car T-boned him while running a red light Tuesday in Northeast Albuquerque.

Andrew Sandoval, 39, is charged with aggravated battery upon a peace officer, aggravated fleeing an officer, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle and failure to obey a traffic signal.

Investigators are waiting on a warrant to search the stolen vehicle, “and depending on what is recovered, could determine if the case will be federally prosecuted,” Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Rebecca Atkins said in a news release.

Sandoval is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Sandoval previously served several years in prison in a forgery case from 2010. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to 18 months probation in a case where he damaged a clothes dryer inside a hotel in June 2024, according to court records. He was also charged with drug crimes in October, but the case was dismissed due to the arresting APD officer being indicted in a separate case.

A witness identified Sandoval as the driver who struck the sergeants vehicle, according to a criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court.

At 10:39 p.m. Tuesday, police were notified that a license plate reader had captured a stolen Volkswagen Jetta driving in the area of Louisiana and Central.

An officer spotted the Jetta speeding west on Copper and Wyoming and told dispatch he would attempt to pull the driver over, the complaint states. The car “fled at a high rate of speed” and ran a red light, striking the police SUV as it headed south on Wyoming.

Police said the sergeant “sustained injuries to his face above his right eye and some bruising to his knee.”

Video surveillance showed a man, later identified as Sandoval, exit the driver’s side door of the Jetta and then crawl away, according to the complaint. Two passengers got out and were detained briefly, being released after telling police they weren’t aware the car was stolen.

Police said Sandoval was taken to a hospital, where he denied driving the car, but later said he was sorry “and didn’t mean to get anyone hurt tonight.”

“Our officers deserve to go home safely to their families,” Police Chief Harold Medina said in a statement. “The fact that a convicted felon was out on the streets in a stolen car, nearly killing one of my officers, is incredibly frustrating.”