Camera captures APD officers using racial slurs, espousing violence at scene of fatal police shooting

They thought the lapel camera was off.

A group of Albuquerque police officers laughed as they threw around racial slurs — calling Native Americans “savages” — and disparaged the man they just killed as a “honky” with “a weird accent,” expressing relief that the man wasn’t Black “because of the optics.”

At one point, one officer tells the others: “I like violent encounters with violent people. That’s why I became a cop. I didn’t come to (expletive) help old ladies who can’t cross the (expletive) road.”

He continued, “I want to take actual shitheads that are actually doing stuff off the streets. If that means we shoot some of them, so be it.”

Not known to the officers was that the April 11 conversation was recorded when they forgot to turn off the lapel camera of an officer who had just fatally shot 30-year-old Mark Benavidez. Benavidez had grabbed an officer’s rifle and fired it repeatedly during a scuffle outside a Walmart store in the northeast area of the city.

Officials with the Albuquerque Police Department have said the two detectives who shot Benavidez work undercover in APD’s Gang Unit. For that reason, APD would not release their names and photographs, as has become common practice after police shootings.

It is unclear who is saying what in the lapel video, as several officers appear to get in or out of the vehicle and talk to others through the window, all while the still-running camera sat tucked behind a seat.

APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said an Internal Affairs investigation has begun to “determine the source and context of the comments, and whether any officers violated APD policies.”

“Chief (Harold) Medina is particularly concerned,” Gallegos said in an initial response. “As a former tribal police chief, Medina has made it a priority to build relationships with tribal agencies and educate APD officers about cultural differences.”

Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement, “This behavior is unacceptable and it is a disservice to the officers who do the right thing.”

“We try to support our officers and their hard work and sacrifices to keep the community safe; that’s why it’s especially disappointing to hear conversations that suggest a callous disregard toward the people we all serve,” he said.

Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, said the comments were made “in jest” after a particularly stressful situation: Multiple rounds being fired in close quarters to a degree where hurried gunshot wound checks were done on the officers involved.

“This was about as real and as stressful as it gets,” the head of the union said. “These guys were joking around, they were decompressing, they were saying inappropriate stuff — like a lot of us do with our friends and family when we’re not in public.”

Willoughby said police officers have some of the “darkest humor that is imaginable.” He added that the officers are likely embarrassed and frustrated as they had no idea they were being recorded.

“We see things that are hard to deal with, we see things that are challenging, we see things that are disappointing, we see the decay of society 40 hours a week, 365 days a year,” Willoughby said. “These guys are just human beings. They are no different than anybody else.”

The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women released a statement Wednesday saying it was “outraged and appalled by the recent revelations of deeply racist and dehumanizing language” by the officers.

The organization called for an “immediate, public and unreserved” apology, an action plan to address violence against indigenous communities and a review of APD policies “to root out discriminatory attitudes.”

“These vile remarks are not isolated incidents but are emblematic of the systemic failures within law enforcement that devalue and dismiss the lives of Indigenous people,” the statement went on to read. “Such derogatory attitudes directly contribute to the inadequacies in solving and preventing cases of violence against Indigenous communities.”

Gallegos, the APD spokesman, said Chief Medina was in the process of reaching out to all tribal and pueblo leaders about the incident.

“He values their perspectives and wants to communicate directly with them as he moves APD forward,” he said.

Keller, in a statement, said he "personally reached out to our Native American Commission and surrounding Pueblos and shared the Chief’s apology and commitment to provide additional training and push positive culture change in the department."

Peter Simonson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, called the video “a letdown of dramatic proportions.”

He said he was “particularly disturbed” by the use of racial slurs “so flippantly” as well as the expressed attitudes toward violence, which he said gives the impression of APD as “just another gang vying for control over our streets.”

“It seems that we have some number of officers who really don’t aspire to be community guardians, they just want to be warriors on a field of battle,” Simonson said.

He added, “Why should any Albuquerquean feel safe calling APD knowing that’s the kind of response that they’re going to get — the officer that could show up at their doorstep is one who’s just looking to get into a gunfight with someone.”

‘Feel the way you feel’

Toward the beginning of the lapel video, obtained by the Journal from KOAT-TV, one of the officers who shot Benavidez gets into a police vehicle with a “buddy officer,” who usually pairs with another after a shooting.

The lapel camera is thrown into the back of the vehicle.

A police union delegate, who speaks with officers after shootings, walks up to the vehicle and says, “Crazy (expletive) day, huh? ... Up here at Walmart in the Northeast Whites.”

The delegate says, “That’s why I live in Rio Rancho,” and another officer says, “That’s why I live on the other side of the mountain.” The delegate explains what happens next to the officer, goes over attorney options and tells him, “If you need to decompress, get out of town for a little while, we will reimburse you up to $500.”

Over the next 20 minutes, the officers talk about being given a tough assignment as “a pawn in the game called APD,” discuss new recruits being softer and “super-sensitive” and decry officers being used to clear homeless encampments as a “bad idea,” with the department being so close to the end of federal reforms.

They continually ask the officer who shot Benavidez if he needs anything and, at one point, one officer says he doesn’t have any cigarettes to offer but has “enough Zyn to fly you to the moon.”

Eventually, it sounds as if the officer is alone with his buddy officer, who gives him “the best advice I got from my first shooting.” The officer says it was given to him by his stepfather, who has “been in a couple shootings.”

“Feel the way you feel, nothing wrong with it.” he tells the officer. “Some people are going to be in here (expletive) crying, some people go home and fall right to sleep. Nothing wrong with it, super normal.”

The buddy officer tells him to keep a journal of what he remembers from the shooting to prepare for his official statement to the Multi-Agency Task Force, which he says will ask “stupid questions” when they interview him about the incident.

“This is going to be the scariest statement you’ve ever given in your life, it just is. It’s the most important statement you’ll probably give in your life,” he tells the officer.

Several minutes later, the conversation changes to family. Specifically, one of the officer’s sons.

One officer tells the other, “Got to get a savage in his life.” The comment is followed by laughter and unintelligible conversation.

“My son’s dating a Native from Isleta,” an officer is heard saying. “She’s going to get a check. He’s going to get a (expletive) free trailer and some (expletive) couple acres of land, a farm down there.”

An officer replies “dope.”

A third officer appears to jokingly chime in on the conversation: “What’s going on over there now? (Expletive) talking about dating savages. It’s getting out of control.”

As the conversation evolves, one officer appears to mock someone who think police should be sorry, or feel sorry, for shooting “a guy who was (expletive) shooting at us.”

Afterward, the officer mentions joining the force because he likes “violent encounters with violent people” and not to help “old ladies” cross the street.

Then another officer mentions how they didn’t have a warrant for Benavidez in the robbery, and “he was going to walk.”

An officer replies, “My only concern coming over here was that he was Black, literally, just because of the optics of it, you know what I mean? If it wasn’t that (expletive) honky out here shooting people, with his weird ass accent.”

Within seconds, the officer who shot Benavidez grabs his camera and realizes it’s still on, saying, “They never turned my (expletive) camera off.”

At that point, the screen goes black and the recording ends.