Lawsuit: APS officials were alerted that shooter had gun before he killed Washington Middle School classmate

The family of a 13-year-old student fatally shot by a classmate at Washington Middle School in 2021 alleges that both the principal and a police officer were told before the shooting that the boy had brought a gun to the campus but took no action, according to an amended lawsuit filed Thursday.

Juan Saucedo Jr. was 13 at the time he brought his father’s gun to Washington Middle School and shot Bennie Hargrove multiple times on the grounds of the school west of Downtown Albuquerque as dozens of horrified students looked on.

“It makes us feel like Bennie didn’t matter,” his grandmother, Vanessa Sawyer, said Thursday, almost two years to the day since the shooting. “There was nobody there, there was nothing — nobody cared. And he didn’t matter.”

But an attorney representing Albuquerque Public Schools responded Thursday that both the school resource officer and the principal have testified in sworn depositions that they were not told that Saucedo had brought a gun to the campus before Hargrove’s fatal shooting.

Both the APS school resource officer and the principal said in depositions that the first they knew of a gun on campus was when they heard gunfire ring out and found Hargrove fatally shot, said Luis Robles, the attorney for APS.

The new filing contends a student learned that Saucedo had the gun at the school on Aug. 13, 2021, prior to Hargrove’s fatal shooting, and told an Albuquerque Public School police officer.

The student also allegedly said that he or she “was ignored” by the officer, Joanne Urbanic, and “no action was taken” in violation of APS policies, according to the amended lawsuit filed Thursday by attorneys representing Hargrove’s family.

Urbanic was ultimately the officer who took Saucedo into custody.

Attorneys for the family said they also learned that a Washington Middle School student told Modesta Herrera-Hernandez, the school’s principal, “prior to the shooting and no action was taken,” the amended suit alleges. That information appears to have been obtained through another student.

“Through discovery, we also learned that a Washington Middle School student claims that another student had told the principal” that Saucedo had a gun on campus, the amended complaint said.

During a news conference at the park near the middle school — renamed earlier this year after Hargrove — Albuquerque attorney Shane Maier, one of the lawyers representing his family, said it wasn’t clear exactly how long before the shooting Urbanic and Herrera-Hernandez were informed about the gun, but said it was between 10 to 25 minutes.

But had the school acted, Sawyer said she feels her grandson would have lived through that day.

Saucedo pleaded no contest in March to second-degree murder and will remain in custody until age 21 in Hargrove’s death. He entered the plea in a March 2 hearing in the 2nd Judicial District Children’s Court.

Robles said attorneys at his firm took a deposition about two weeks ago from a female student who claimed that she told the school resource officer prior to Hargrove’s shooting that Saucedo had a gun on campus. Robles described the girl as a friend of Hargrove’s.

Nonetheless, “Both officer Urbanic and the principal have said in discovery, both written as well as in deposition, that the first they knew of a gun on campus was when the shooting happened because they were both in the schoolyard when that occurred,” Robles said in a phone interview Thursday.

Both Urbanic and Herrera-Hernandez deny the girl’s claim that they knew in advance that Saucedo had a weapon.

“They heard the gunshots and that was the first time they ever realized that there was any kind of a firearm on campus, so they are categorically denying that they knew anything about a weapon,” Robles said.

In her deposition, Herrera-Hernandez offered her “deepest condolences” to the Hargrove family. “If I could have stood in front of that gun, I would have,” she said. “I was just too far away.”

After the shooting, “Officer Urbanic took out her gun and ran to Juan Saucedo and was prepared to shoot the kid,” Robles said. “But once he was given orders to drop the gun, he dropped the gun. This is not an officer who ran from the danger. She ran to it.”

Saucedo’s friends knew that he had brought a gun to campus that morning “but they didn’t tell anyone,” Robles said. But Hargrove’s friends have said in depositions that they didn’t know in advance that Saucedo was armed, he said.

Robles also said that the girl who made the new allegation was interviewed the day of the shooting by Albuquerque Police Department investigators. The girl told police that she never told an adult that Saucedo had a gun on campus prior to the fatal shooting, he said.

“So there are questions about her credibility,” Robles said of the girl.

Hargrove’s family lauded the unnamed student as “courageous.”

Maier said APD’s focus wasn’t a question of “How did APS make the mistake?” but one of “What are the criminal charges we’re looking to bring against the shooter?”

“It’s not APD’s job to investigate whether APS was put on notice,” he said. “And again, APS never did … their own investigation for that. And that’s why we think that APS’ actions were extremely reckless.”

Maier also pointed out that the girl who made the allegation was not a friend of either Saucedo or Hargrove, but was in fact a third party. As for why the student only came forward recently, Maier said her deposition was delayed in part because the criminal case against Saucedo needed to be wrapped up first.

School district spokeswoman Monica Armenta said both Urbanic and Herrera-Hernandez are still employed by the district, and neither has been placed on administrative leave.

Attorneys for Hargrove’s family said they learned the new information through discovery obtained from official sources while pursuing a lawsuit filed in December 2021 against the school and APS on behalf of Hargrove’s mother and grandmother.

The family also plans to file a federal civil rights claim alleging deprivation of Hargrove’s federal civil rights, Maier said.

Hargrove’s death spurred state legislation, passed earlier this year, making it a crime for gun owners to negligently store their firearms in a way that minors, like Saucedo, can access them. If a minor accesses a gun under those circumstances and gravely injures or kills someone, the gun owner can face a felony under the law.

Hargrove was defending a friend from being bullied when he was shot. His family recently celebrated what would have been his 15th birthday.

Even though it’s been almost two years since that day, Hargrove’s family is still healing. His youngest siblings still expect him to one day walk through the door. His mother still catches herself thinking he’ll one day call her. And his older siblings, who are now around 13, are still angry.

Hargrove’s mother, Collette Wise said, these new allegations have reopened those wounds.

“The pain is there. It’s never going to go away,” she said. “But it hurts me more to know that my son was in a no-win situation, that there was no help for him.”