On April 11 Albuquerque Police Officers (APD) were involved in an officer-involved shooting that left one suspect man dead. The shooting took place in the Walmart parking lot on Wyoming Boulevard near Menaul Boulevard. At the time of the shooting, APD officers were looking for Adriana Gonzales, who is believed to be involved in several Albuquerque armed robberies. They located her, as well as a man, identified by APD as Mark Benavidez, at around 11:35 a.m. on April 11 in the Walmart parking lot. Gonzales and Benavidez had warrants out for their arrest.
DETAILS RELEASED ON SHOOTING
On May 30, APD held a news conference to release details on the April 11 officer-involved shooting. APD Chief Harold Medina said officers were searching for 25-year-old Adriana Gonzales, who they believed was involved in several armed robberies. Police located Gonzales around 11:35 a.m. in the parking lot of the Walmart near Wyoming and Menaul. Adriana Gonzales was with a man identified as 30-year-old Mark Benavidez.
APD Commander Kyle Hartsock said robbery detectives were able to identify Adriana Gonzales on April 10 and secured an arrest warrant for robbery with a deadly weapon and 3 counts of conspiracy to commit robbery. Benavidez was not identified at that time. On April 11, Gonzales and Benavidez were tracked to the Walmart at 2266 Wyoming Blvd., N.E. Detectives observed Benavidez leave a vehicle and enter the Walmart, leaving Gonzales in the car. Detectives then arrested Gonzales without incident.
Detectives waited by the Walmart entrance waiting for Mark Benavidez to come out. Commander Hartsock said that Mark Benavidez had an unrelated warrant out for his arrest and was suspected of being involved with the armed robberies. As Benavidez left the store, two APD detectives attempted to take Benavidez into custody. When Mark Benavidez attempted to flee into the parking lot, one of the detectives grabbed Benavidez and they both fell to the ground.
As they fell, Benavidez grabbed the detective’s rifle and put his finger on the police rifle. Mark Benavidez then used his other hand to turn the safety off on the rifle. The rifle went off into the ground and the second detective shot Benavidez with a taser. A third detective then got involved and pushed the rifle into the ground and tried to get Benavidez’s hands off the rifle. The police rifle was fired 7 more times into the ground during the incident. The first two detectives fired their handguns at Benavidez, striking him five times. Medical aid was given but Mark Benavidez died on the scene. On the day of her arrest, Adriana Gonzales admitted to the armed robberies she was being charged with and told detectives that Benavidez had also been involved. She is currently being held in custody until trial. The Multi-Agency Task Force was called in to investigate the shooting which is required with all APD officer involved shootings.
During the press conference, APD Chief Harold Medina said this:
“This is just one of those reminders. Our officers are confronted with life-and-death situations every day, and it is very concerning when you see the type of videos of what happened today and the position that our officers were placed in. And, like I said, I am just so grateful for their bravery and the fact that none of them were injured or killed.”
Links to quoted and relied upon news sources are here:
https://www.krqe.com/news/crime/apd-one-dead-after-police-shooting-in-northeast-albuquerque/
INTERNAL AFFAIRS INVESITGATION INITIATED
On August 4, multiple city news outlets reported that an APD Internal Affairs investigation is underway after audio from one officer’s body camera captured a racist conversation between officers after the April 11 police officer killing of 30-year-old Mark Benavidez. Not known to the officers was that the April 11 conversation was recorded when the officer who had just fatally shot 30-year-old Mark Benavidez forgot to turn off his lapel camera. The officers are heard disparaging the man they had just killed as a “honky” with “a weird accent” expressing relief that the man wasn’t Black “because of the optics.”
The lapel body camera video is almost 90 minutes long. 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 lapel camera sat tucked behind a seat. It’s unknowingly recording and is placed inside an officer’s police car in what looks like a backseat. APD redacted conversations between an officer and their union attorney, a conversation with their psychotherapist and a city employee’s personal cellphone number. It’s unclear exactly who is speaking in the footage, but the officers don’t hold back.
LAPEL CAMERA RECORING
At the beginning of the lapel video recording one of the officers who shot Benavidez gets into a police vehicle with a “buddy officer,” who pairs with another after a shooting. At that point, the lapel camera is thrown into the back of the vehicle, but the officer did not realize he did not turn off his lapel camera.
A police union delegate, who speaks with officers after shootings, walks up to the vehicle and says, “Crazy fucking day, huh? … Up here at Walmart in the Northeast Whites.”
The union representative tells the officers this:
“That’s why I live in Rio Rancho.”
Another officer chimes in:
“That’s why I live on the other side of the mountain.”
The union representative explains what happens next to the officer, goes over attorney options and tells him this:
“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 police officers talk about being given a tough assignment as “a pawn in the game called APD. ” They 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 the federal court mnadated 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, ostensibly one who is or was a police officer, and who has “been in a couple shootings.” The officer says to the other:
“Feel the way you feel, nothing wrong with it. … Some people are going to be in here fucking 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 and to prepare for his official statement to the investigating Multi-Agency Task Force, which he says will ask “stupid questions” when they interview him about the incident. He tells the officer this:
“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.”
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.
It’s roughly a one-minute-long conversation that can only be described as racist. Multiple officers are inside the police car, with the body camera still recording when they said the following referring to another officer:
One Officer is heard saying:
“My son’s dating a Native from Isleta. … She’s going to get a check. He’s going to get a fucking free trailer and some fucking 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? Fucking talking about dating savages. It’s getting out of control.”
As the conversation progresses, one officer appears to mock someone who think police should be sorry, or feel sorry, for shooting “a guy who was fucking shooting at us.”
Afterward, the officer mentions why he became a cop and says this:
“I like violent encounters with violent people. … That’s why I became a cop. I didn’t come to fucking help old ladies who can’t cross the fucking road. I want to take actual shitheads that are actually doing stuff off the street. … If it means you shoot some of them, so be it.”
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 fucking honky out here shooting people, with his weird ass accent.”
Within seconds, the officer who shot Benavidez grabs his lapel camera and realizes it’s still on, saying, “They never turned my fuckin camera off.”
APD RESPONDS TO MEDIA
APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos sent KOAT this statement:
“An Internal Affairs investigation has been initiated to determine the source and context of the comments, and whether any officers violated APD policies. … Chief Medina is particularly concerned. 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.”
Officials with the Albuquerque Police Department 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.
REACTION TO BODY CAMERA RECORDINGS
The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women released a statement saying it was “outraged and appalled by the recent revelations of deeply racist and dehumanizing language” by APD Police Officers. The organization issued a statement calling 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.” The statement reads in part:
“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. … Such derogatory attitudes directly contribute to the inadequacies in solving and preventing cases of violence against Indigenous communities.”
Mayor Tim Keller said this 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.”
Shaun Willoughby, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, said the police officers comments were made “in jest” after a particularly stressful situation including multiple shots fired in close quarters to a degree where hurried gunshot wound checks were done on the officers involved. Willoughby said this:
“This was about as real and as stressful as it gets. 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. … 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. These guys are just human beings. They are no different than anybody else. … [Cops have some of the] darkest humor that is imaginable.”
Willoughby added that the officers are likely embarrassed and frustrated as they had no idea they were being recorded.
During the August 5 Albuquerque City Council meeting, APD Deputy Chief Josh Brown was asked point blank by Democrat Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn Councilor if Willoughby’s comments saying the officers “… were saying inappropriate stuff like a lot of us do with our friends and family when we’re not in public. … They’re no different than anybody else” was the position of APD? Brown responded “It’s not.” Brown then issued an apology to the Native American community and Albuquerque residents in general. Brown said “Some of those comments that you see, they’re not acceptable”. Deputy Chief Brown then referenced “disparaging remarks” from another part of the APD lapel camera conversation during which the officers appeared to criticize new APD recruits as being too soft and “super-sensitive.” Referring to the new cadets coming through APD’s academy, Brown told Fiebelkorn this:
“If you look, those are the officers that are — that reflection in our culture change, the broader understanding and empathy that those officers see”.
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.” Simonson said this:
“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. 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.”
Links to quoted and relied upon news sources are here:
DEPRTMENT OF JUSTICE REFORMS
For over the past 9 years, the Albuquerque Police Department has been operating under a Court Approved Settlement Agreement mandating 271 reforms after a Department of Justice investigation found that APD had engaged in a pattern of “excessive use of force” and “deadly force” and finding a “culture of aggression.”
Over nine years, the city has spent millions on reform efforts, has created and staffed new divisions to hold APD officers accountable, rewrote use of force policies and procedures and trained APD officers in constitutional policing practices. The reform has been accomplished under the watchful eye of the federal court and an appointed Federal Independent Monitor.
On June 4, a federal court hearing was held on the 19th Federal Independent Monitor’s Report and APD’s progress in implementing the mandated reforms of the CASA. The federal monitor reported that APD has reached 100% primary compliance, 100% secondary compliance and 96% operational compliance of the 271 reforms mandated by the settlement. Under the terms and conditions of the settlement agreement, once APD sustains a 95% compliance rate in all three identified compliance levels and maintains it for two consecutive years, the case can be dismissed.
APD RANKS #1 IN CIVILIAN KILLINGS OUT OF THE 50 LARGEST CITY POLICE DEPARTMENTS IN THE COUNTRY
On April 10, the on line news publication Searchlight New Mexico published a remarkable story researched and written by its staff reporter Josh Bowling. The article is entitled “Can the Albuquerque Police Department ever be reformed?” The article goes into great detail explaining the Court Approved Settlement Agreement, what has been done to reform APD and the role of the Federal Monitor. The link to read the full, unedited Searchlight New Mexico article with photos and graphs is here:
The Search Light New Mexico article reported that last year, the Albuquerque Police Department killed 10.6 people per million residents, more than any other sizable police department in the nation, according to data tracked by the national nonprofit Mapping Police Violence.
The Search Light New Mexico article contains a horizontal graph listing the 50 largest cities in the United States. According to the graph, among the 50 largest cities, Albuquerque Police killed people at the highest rate than all the other city police departments in 2023 at the rate of 10.6 per 1 Million population. It is worth comparing Albuquerque’s 10.6 kill rate to the largest cities in the surrounding border states of Texas, Colorado, Arizona and also including Oklahoma and Nevada:
- Albuquerque, NM: 10.6
- San Antonio, Texas: 9.8
- Phoenix, Arizona: 8.7
- Austin, Texas: 7.3
- Denver, Colorado: 5.6
- Tucson, Arizona: 5.5
- Fort Worth, Texas: 5.4
- Houston, Texas: 5.2
- Colorado Springs, Colorado: 4.2
- Dallas, Texas: 3.1
- El Paso, Texas: 2.9
- Las Vegas, Nevada: 2.6
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: 2.0
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The most disturbing comments captured on the lapel camera are these:
“I like violent encounters with violent people. … That’s why I became a cop. I didn’t come to fucking help old ladies who can’t cross the fucking road. I want to take actual shitheads that are actually doing stuff off the street. … If it means you shoot some of them, so be it.”
It’s remarks like these from any APD cop that should be the most disturbing to the APD high command, elected officials and the general public. The comments reflect a philosophy that should disqualify any person from becoming a police officer in the first place. The comments reflect that APD’s Culture of Aggression found by the Department of Justice is still alive and well within APD rank and file.
INAPPRORIATE COACHING LIKELY OCCURRED
As part of the Department of Justice reforms, APD rewrote use of force policies and procedures. APD has also established standard operating procedures that must be followed after a police officer involved shooting, which includes the assignment of a “buddy officer”. The protocol mandates that a Multi-Agency Task Force is called in to immediately to investigate the shooting to determine if was a justified shooting done in self-defense and to interview the officers who were involved with the shooting. According to the protocol, police officers who are involved with a shooting are to be segregated separately for interviews so as not to jeopardize or taint the investigation and to prevent coordination of statements.
The link to review APD Standard Operating Procedures is here:
https://public.powerdms.com/COA/tree/documents/2476781
The lapel camera voice recording reflects that the officers who were involved with the shooting were not segregated immediately and at one time were all in the same patrol car and discussed the shooting. 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, 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, ostensibly one who is or was a police officer, and who has “been in a couple shootings.” The officer says to the other:
“Feel the way you feel, nothing wrong with it. … Some people are going to be in here fucking crying, some people go home and fall right to sleep. Nothing wrong with it, super normal.”
At one point the buddy officer tells one of the officers involved in the shooting to keep a journal of what he remembers from the shooting and to prepare for his official statement to the investigating Multi-Agency Task Force, which he says will ask “stupid questions” when they interview him about the incident. He tells the officer this:
“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.”
RASCISM WITHIN APD MUST BE CONDEMNED
APOA President Shaun Willoughby’s defense of the officers comments on the lapel camera that “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” was disgusting and way out of line. Police officers are supposed to be professionals. They are supposed to be trained to deal with stressful situations and there is no excuse for racism to deal with stress.
Racist remarks made by any APD officer, whether it be in private and even recorded by accident, must be condemn in no uncertain terms. Racism at any level within APD cannot be tolerated. It must be dealt with swiftly and decidedly. At a very bare minimum, all the officers who made the remarks need to be admonished in no uncertain terms and suspended without pay for a period of time. Sensitivity and racial tolerance training is likely in order.
FINAL COMMENT
It is more likely than not, based on the reported facts, that the Multi-Agency Task Force called in to investigate the April 11 killing of Mark Benavidez will ultimately find that the shooting was justified and that the officers will not be disciplined for use of deadly force. However, such a finding does not excuse them for not following required protocol that must be followed after the use of deadly force, the coaching of an officer involved with the shooting or the use of racial slurs and the glorification of violence.
APD may be on the verge of dismissal of the federal court approved settlement agreement, but this incident and the fact that APD is ranked number one in the country for deadly force police shootings is a reflection of APD’s continued Culture of Aggression.