One dead after police tackle man during call outside Northeast Albuquerque home

A man was killed after getting into a “wrestling match” with officers during a domestic violence call in Northeast Albuquerque on Sunday afternoon.

No officers were injured, and the Multi-Agency Task Force is investigating the incident, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said.

It is unknown how many officers were involved, he said.

Police did not disclose the name of the man.

Shortly after 1 p.m., officers responded to a call of a domestic dispute in the 11600 block of Mountain, near Juan Tabo.

After officers arrived, they contacted the man on the driveway and told him he was under arrest. The man tried to run before officers tackled him, Police Chief Harold Medina said during a late Sunday afternoon news conference.

Over the next couple of minutes, Medina said the officers were in a “wrestling match for their (lives)” as they tried to hold down the man who was armed with a handgun.

Elegy Sonata said she was in a house nearby when she heard shouting and looked out the window.

“They looked like they pinned him down to the ground,” she said. “I looked away cause I didn’t think there was going to be much to see. I thought they were going to arrest him and (it) wouldn’t be a big deal.”

Medina said the man was told to drop his firearm, which he did not do. He also told officers he “didn’t want to do this” or “don’t make me do this” and to “just go ahead and kill (me),” Medina said.

Officers were continuing to pin the man down on his stomach, when the man was able to turn over to his back, Medina said. And that was when the man’s firearm became free.

“Then we heard a bunch of gunshots, like, I would say maybe five to eight gunshots,” Sonata said. “I’m not so sure. I would say at least five, though.” The shots caused Sonata and others in the house to hide from the windows “in case gunshots came through the window or something,” she said.

“That’s when we realized the guy was lying still on the ground,” Sonata said, “the cops had gotten up off him and it was obvious that he was dead.”

Medina said the man “may have fired a shot” before he was killed, but “we have to verify that.”

“I’m grateful none of our officers were injured or killed today,” he said.

Sonata said she calmed down after the incident, but for a few moments, she said she felt “panic and disbelief.”

“It just kind of feels a little surreal, you know?” she said.