Off-duty Albuquerque officer accused of striking person in motorcycle hit-and-run

An Albuquerque police officer was in custody Friday, charged with striking and critically injuring a man before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle Thursday evening.

Officer Ezekiel Florez, 29, was charged Friday with knowingly leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm. Florez was off-duty at the time of the crash and had another off-duty officer, Krystal Garcia, on the motorcycle with him, police say.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said Florez and Garcia, who was not charged, were both placed on administrative leave while APD investigates the incident.

“Investigators noted that Florez and Garcia failed to call for medical help after the crash and waited several hours before they returned to the scene,” Gallegos said in a statement. Court records show doctors told police it is unclear if the man Florez allegedly struck will survive his injuries.

Florez remained in custody Friday at the Metropolitan Detention Center. He has not been scheduled for an initial court appearance, and it is unclear if he has an attorney.

Gallegos said both Florez and Garcia are relatively new recruits, having graduated the police academy in February 2024.

The crash occurred shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday as Florez was driving a motorcycle west on Central “at a high rate of speed” with Garcia in the passenger seat, Gallegos said in a statement.

The motorcycle “clipped” a man walking in the intersection of Central and Coors NW and fled west on Central, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

A neurosurgeon at the University of New Mexico Hospital told police the still-unidentified man “was extremely critical and not likely to survive his injuries,” the complaint said.

Florez’s involvement in the crash came to light when Garcia called another officer and identified herself as the passenger on the motorcycle, the complaint said. Garcia told the officer that as they were riding, “a homeless subject ran into the roadway, and they believed they ‘clipped him’ with the motorcycle.”

Multiple 911 callers reported that a white motorcycle with two occupants struck a pedestrian and fled west on Central.

Police found the man lying in a crosswalk with a serious head injury that “exposed brain matter,” according to the criminal complaint. A witness told police she was stopped at the intersection when the westbound motorcycle passed her traveling “extremely fast” and struck the pedestrian in the Coors intersection.

The collision was captured by an Albuquerque Rapid Transit bus station camera, the complaint said. The video showed the man running southbound through the crosswalk while westbound traffic had a green light.

“A white motorcycle, occupied by two riders, is seen traveling at a high rate of speed, striking the pedestrian and continuing westbound,” the complaint said.

Florez and Garcia later returned to the scene and they were detained, Gallegos said in the statement.

“Florez told investigators he saw the pedestrian running across the intersection and he could not get out of the way in time and the pedestrian struck the right side of the motorcycle,” according to the complaint.