Fatal shooting of Matthew Garcia by Albuquerque police ruled out of policy

Handcuffed in the backseat of a police car, Matthew “Solo” Garcia told officers he wanted to kill himself, that he wouldn’t go back to jail and he had a gun.

What came next was the subject of a police investigation and public outcry.

An internal probe found that Albuquerque Police Department officers Precious Cadena and Zachary Earles violated APD policy when they shot and killed Garcia while he was handcuffed in the back of the police car, according to Internal Affairs Force Division findings.

The tussle in the squad car’s back seat could have largely been prevented by a pat down that officers never finished, the investigation found.

“This ultimately was the major contributing factor to the need to use force,” according to the investigation, obtained by the Journal through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.

The investigation found the shooting furthered a “lawful purpose” and was a “reasonable” reaction by officers given the gun on Garcia’s person. However, the use of force was neither minimal nor necessary due to a failure to follow protocol during Garcia’s arrest.

As discipline, Cadena was given a 48-hour suspension and Earles, who’d been involved in a previous shooting, was slated to receive a 96-hour suspension. Earles appealed his suspension and that process is ongoing, said APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos. Both are still employed with the department.

The investigation raised concerns about a sergeant caught in the officers’ crossfire, a failure to pat down Garcia and a misunderstanding of APD’s role that day at the Tewa Lodge.

The daylight shooting was witnessed by residents of the Tewa Lodge and a rumor that Garcia had been shot “execution-style” on the sidewalk spread quickly on social media, drawing a crowd of protesters.

Garcia’s death caused community uproar, vigils and headlines. His family has since filed a wrongful death suit in 2nd Judicial District Court.

“How many people have to die before APD says, ‘Hey, maybe we need to have a retraining of everyone in the department,’” said Frances Crockett Carpenter, an attorney representing Garcia’s family.

Since 2010, Albuquerque police have shot 149 people, killing 90 of them, according to Journal reporting and APD-provided data. In 2014, APD was put under federal oversight by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The consent decree between the DOJ and APD aimed to reform a department that the DOJ said displayed a “pattern or practice” of officers using excessive force. In May of this year, the DOJ announced it had agreed to end the consent decree, having found APD met its end of the bargain and “has become a self-assessing and self-correcting agency.”

Garcia’s lawyers, who have represented the families of others killed by APD officers over years, said that lifting the decree was premature.

“I don’t think the consent decree should have been lifted and I still think there’s a ton of work to be done within the city of Albuquerque,” said Taylor Smith, another attorney representing Garcia’s family.

Last year, APD shot 13 people, killing nine. APD has fatally shot nine people and wounded four this year.

‘A Trojan horse’

What would end in a fatal shooting began as an inspection of the Tewa Lodge by city Code Enforcement.

APD was there to serve as security for Code Enforcement employees while they examined the property after reports of unlivable conditions, the investigation states. APD was on scene to clear occupants from their rooms and protect city employees while they did inspections.

Garcia was one of those residents asked to leave by officers. He shuffled out of room 20 and caught Cadena’s eye after she noticed a small green vial hanging from his neck.

She’d seen necklaces like that before, she told investigators, and they sometimes concealed fentanyl. Cadena detained Garcia, who initially gave a false name.

That day officers were briefed for a civil operation, not a criminal one, the investigation states.

“It is important to note that these concerns related to the tactical operation did not directly result in the need to utilize deadly force, but it certainly contributed to scene/role confusion,” according to investigators.

Garcia’s attorneys called the event an unlawful “shakedown” of the Tewa Lodge residents.

“Code Enforcement is not a Trojan horse for APD to become involved,” Smith said.

Lapel camera footage shows that Cadena donned gloves to search Garcia and confiscated a vial necklace containing fentanyl pills. But after Garcia began to hit his head repeatedly against the car window — Cadena abandoned efforts to search him, the investigation states.

She instead shut him in the back seat where grunting and banging sounds can be heard in her lapel camera footage.

A toxicology report found that Garcia had 4,700 nanograms of methamphetamine per milliliter of blood in his system, as well as 890 nanograms of methadone, 290 nanograms of amphetamines and other drugs.

People with 200 to 600 ng/mL of methamphetamine in their system can exhibit “violent and irrational behavior,” according to the Office of the Medical Investigator. Garcia had nearly eight times that amount in his system.

The investigation did not consider Garcia’s intoxication a factor in the shooting.

Cadena told investigators that she chose not to search Garcia because a higher-ranking officer told her not to and because she believed it would de-escalate the situation. The investigation found that no such order was issued and that another statement by a sergeant was misinterpreted.

“Throw him in the back of the car then,” a sergeant told Cadena after she explained why she was detaining Garcia.

The investigation states that Cadena didn’t pat down Garcia even though it was “both feasible and legally appropriate” creating a situation that put both her own life and Garcia’s at risk.

While Garcia was in the back seat, Cadena expressed concerns that he would try to hurt or kill himself and offered him a cigarette, lighting it for him and letting him smoke it in the backseat.

Later, while in the front seat confirming Garcia’s three outstanding warrants, Cadena told officers she had never searched Garcia.

“He has something back there, that’s why I asked you to watch him for now,” she told another officer. “He’s (expletive) freaking me out”

The sergeant who eventually would take the gun from Garcia, warned Cadena that his clothes were bunched up and he might be armed. Cadena opened the car door and Garcia began to mutter, lapel footage shows.

“You don’t wanna do this,” Garcia said. “You guys really don’t wanna do this.”

Then Garcia said he had a gun.

Lapel camera footage shows a sergeant wrestle the handgun from a handcuffed Garcia seconds before a volley of gunfire erupted. Two officers fired 11 rounds at Garcia and all but one of those bullets pierced his body while the sergeant lay on top of him in the back seat. The sergeant moved away from the crossfire just before the final shot rang out.

Garcia’s last recorded words were unintelligible except for its ending, “(expletive) die.”

“When somebody dies in the way that Mr. Garcia did, it has a ripple effect,” Smith said on behalf of the family.

Garcia had two children, one of whom wanted to be a police officer, Smith said. His father’s death completely shook the boy and dissuaded him from joining the force, Smith said.

“They’re just completely heartbroken by this,” Smith said. “And they just want the city to do the right thing and have some sense of justice for Mr. Garcia.”

Saturday, on the anniversary of Garcia’s death, the Southwest Solidarity Network is holding a vigil outside of the Tewa Lodge at 6 p.m. The lodge has remained closed since the shooting — its windows and doors boarded up with plywood.