APD: SWAT officer shoots, kills man after chase into West Side tunnel

Albuquerque police deployed a helicopter, a drone and less lethal bullets in trying to capture a man and woman who fled into a tunnel on the mesa near Interstate 40 and Coors NW on Thursday morning. Ultimately, the man was shot and killed after a standoff, police said.

The man, who wasn’t identified by the Albuquerque Police Department as of Thursday evening, at one point appeared to be pointing a gun at the woman’s stomach and had her enter a vehicle, police said. She wasn’t injured, and it wasn’t clear on Friday whether she was with him willingly or unwillingly, APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said.

“We believed they both had outstanding felony warrants,” said APD Deputy Chief Cecily Barker at a news briefing afterward. The Multi-Agency Task Force responded to investigate.

But initial reports showed that prior to the shooting, officers on APD’s Southwest Proactive Response Team saw a suspicious vehicle in the Flying J travel center parking lot near 98th and I-40 about 8:40 a.m. A check of the license plate came back as stolen. APD officers saw the man and woman enter the vehicle, drive south and get into a truck in the nearby El Mezquite Market parking lot. The truck driver refused to stop when officers tried to make a traffic stop.

The truck was seen traveling erratically, so a police helicopter followed. Police field officers closed the 98th exit at I-40 and called for more “resources,” Barker said. Ultimately, officers responded to an area of the mesa where the truck got stuck in sand.

The two occupants had gotten out and fled to a nearby tunnel, so APD sent a drone inside the tunnel to film the two. The drone video footage showed the “male had a firearm in his right hand.” Officers took up their positions while the SWAT team was summoned.

Gallegos said eventually the man and woman emerged, and the man had his arm around her, with a gun pointed at her stomach. The man refused to drop the weapon, officers fired less lethal bullets and a SWAT team member shot the man with a rifle.

The man, who was believed to be on probation, dropped to the ground and the female wasn’t injured but was taken to the hospital for other issues, Gallegos said.