89.9 FM Live From The University Of New Mexico
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

MON: Albuquerque Police investigate after officers shoot and kill handcuffed man, + More

Lapel camera footage of Albuquerque Police Department officers shooting and killing Matthew "Solo" Garcia while he was handcuffed in the back of a police vehicle.
Albuquerque Police Department
Lapel camera footage of Albuquerque Police Department officers shooting and killing Matthew "Solo" Garcia while he was handcuffed in the back of a police vehicle.

Albuquerque Police investigate after officers shoot and kill handcuffed manAlbuquerque Journal, KUNM News

Albuquerque Police officers shot and killed a handcuffed man Friday outside a motel on Central Avenue after they tried to take away a gun he said he had behind his back.

The Albuquerque Journal reports Police Chief Harold Medina released lapel camera video of the shooting of Matthew “Solo” Garcia at a press conference Sunday. However, Medina did not release the whole video because he said two of the officers must be interviewed.

The shooting took place outside the Tewa Motor Lodge at Central and Alvarado where police were targeting criminal activity. Medina said Garcia had three outstanding warrants.

It’s unclear if officers searched Garcia for weapons prior to putting him in handcuffs in a police car. Medina said APD is conducting an administrative investigation.

He also released video of a confrontation between police and protestors Friday night where two people were arrested. Medina said one of those arrested had hit an officer.

There was another protest Sunday evening outside APD headquarters that included members of Garcia’s family.

A post on Instagram Monday urged people to attend the Albuquerque City Council meeting that evening to demand the release of the full video of the shooting.

New Mexico authorities rescue hundreds after flooding strands many in high water and leaves 2 dead - By Walter Berry And Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press

A southeastern New Mexico community began to dry out Monday after historic rainfall over the weekend produced severe flooding that left at least two people dead and hundreds stranded on rooftops.

Waterlogged vehicles were still submerged along some city streets in Roswell, while others were seen smashed along bridge supports and tossed up against trees and power poles after being swept away by the floodwaters on Saturday and Sunday.

All the standing water and mangled masses of twisted guardrails and splintered wood were scenes unfamiliar for the community. Surrounded by usually dusty plains and dairy farms, Roswell isn't famous for any notable rainfall but rather for being the spot where a spacecraft purportedly crashed in 1947.

Less than a foot of rain usually falls in Roswell an average year, but forecasters with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque said Monday that the weekend deluge was spurred by an upper-level low pressure system that was parked over Arizona.

"So the moisture just kept funneling and funneling and funneling up across eastern New Mexico," meteorologist Jennifer Shoemake said. "They got multiple days of heavy rainfall and severe weather in that area because that storm system was just not moving."

More than 300 people were rescued by the New Mexico National Guard, with 38 of those taken to hospitals for treatment of undisclosed injuries. New Mexico State Police said two people died as a result of the flash flood, but information on the victims or the circumstances of their deaths wasn't immediately released.

Even Chaves County Sheriff Mike Herrington posted a video on social media in which he was standing on top of his vehicle surrounded by water. Herrington said he had to go to the roof of his vehicle when it and several other vehicles became stranded in water that rose up to the windows.

At the civic center, a birthday party was derailed Saturday when floodwaters began pouring onto the dance floor. At first, some people tried to keep dancing while Moises Torres and his band, La Fuerza Del Bravo, played on.

"It looked like we were going down like the Titanic," he told The Associated Press.

As the water continued to rise, the guests rushed to the roof. Torres said he was hesitant to leave his band equipment behind, but as soon as the water reached the top of the stage, the band joined the party guests. Torres captured videos from the roof of floating cars in the rushing floodwaters.

"The water was dragging everything that was in the way," he said.

The group huddled in the cold on the roof for several hours as the rain continued through the night, Torres said.

Rescue crews arrived around daybreak Sunday as the water receded. The group descended from the roof to find the civic center filled with mud.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared an emergency Monday in response to the flooding, clearing the way for $1 million in state funding to bolster relief efforts. She met with city officials who were charting the path for cleanup and recovery.

Roswell City Councilor Juliana Halvorson told the AP that despite warnings Saturday morning for the potential for severe weather later that day, no one was expecting the subsequent flooding. She has surveyed much of the damaged and noted that many homeowners don't have flood insurance.

"There's too much devastation to see in one day," she said. "Some homes still have 4 or 5 feet of water or more. The water picked up cars and chunks of concrete, and those things are so heavy."

Authorities were forced to close roads leading to and from the city on Sunday. Water levels have since receded in many areas.

Forecasters said 5.78 inches of rain fell on Roswell on Saturday, breaking the city's previous daily record of 5.65 inches set on Nov. 1, 1901. Some areas surrounding Roswell received around 9 inches of rain in a matter of hours, according to the National Weather Service.

"It was a storm that just kept building and building south of town," City Councilor Edward "Ed" Heldenbrand said. "It was never anticipated that it would rain for five hours."

He spent part of Monday morning driving around to check on some property he owns.

"Roads damaged. Bridges damaged. Fences down. Vehicles piled up everywhere. A cargo container overturned next to car," he said. "An unbelievable picture of destruction."

Pilot dies in crash of a small plane at a New Mexico air show - Associated Press

A small plane crashed during an air show in New Mexico, killing the only person aboard, authorities said.

The two-seat Extra Flugzeugbau EA300 monoplane went down around 2:30 p.m. Sunday during the Las Cruces Air and Space Expo, being held at Las Cruces International Airport.

The pilot was performing aerobatics when the plane crashed about a half-mile west of the airport. The pilot was killed. The rest of the expo was called off after the crash.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator was expected to arrive in Las Cruces on Monday to begin documenting the scene and examining the wreckage. The New Mexico State Police will lead the investigation.

New Mexico leaders say legislative agencies ‘bursting at the seams,’ have outgrown the Roundhouse - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico 

New Mexico’s legislative leaders say they’re working on finding more space for a growing force of support staff, but a long-term fix won’t come anytime soon.

By the time lawmakers come to Santa Fe in January for the next regular legislative session, the building several officials believe is the solution still won’t be designed.

And it’s been years in the making.

Office space for legislative workers is expected to be freed up once state officials finally manage to build a new office building for the state’s executive branch, which for the last 14 years has been planned for a piece of state-owned land just across the street from the New Mexico State Capitol, also known as the Roundhouse.

Money to get the project started was set aside more than two years ago, but the main sticking point appears to be a disagreement between local and governments over whether or not state officials are allowed to demolish four vacant homes sitting on the project site.

“This project is really very important because it has implications for the Capitol and the space that’s needed at the Capitol,” recently retired Legislative Council Service director Raúl Burciaga said in August at the most recent Capitol Buildings Planning Commission meeting.

“By moving forward with this, it will allow us to expand some of the areas within the Capitol, and allow more space for session staff, which is bursting at the seams,” Burciaga said. “It is a long-term project, but it is necessary.”

The Capitol Buildings Planning Commission in 2011 said the new building could “achieve significant savings” by relocating the State Treasurer’s Office and the State Auditor’s Office out of buildings the state rents from private landowners and to the state-owned Capitol campus.

But the General Services Department, the state agency in charge of the project, has not yet decided who will occupy the building, said spokesperson Joe Vigil.

The historical significance of the 1930s-era “casitas,” as legislative officials call them, was upheld by the city of Santa Fe Historic Review Board in 2014, Burciaga said.

State officials asked the city board to demolish the casitas but was denied, said GSD Deputy Secretary Anna Silva. The point of disagreement was over the building’s design, she said.

The state has since hired an architectural firm to design the building, and in August started determining its size and who will occupy it, she said.

Then, a joint committee of state and local officials will discuss the final design. In situations like these, state law requires state and local officials to work together to protect historic buildings.

A kickoff meeting is scheduled for late November, Vigil said. The date will be announced soon, he said.

Silva said the process would take three to four months, which would mean the final design won’t be ready until February, at the earliest.

The discussion about the executive office building presents “complexities,” House Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque) said Oct. 15 at a meeting of the the Facilities Review Subcommittee, which he chairs.

“I think that there is more space in the hopper coming for our staff,” he added. “Clearly, we’ve outgrown the building.”

The subcommittee is part of the Legislative Council, a group of lawmakers from both chambers who oversee all legislative work between sessions. Its members didn’t take any final action on Tuesday, and they’re expected to meet again at the end of the Legislative Council meeting scheduled for Dec. 4.

“We’ll keep this conversation going, and I suspect we’ll be taking action here in due time,” Martínez said.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL SERVICE ‘IN DIRE NEED OF SPACE’

The Legislative Council Service helps lawmakers draft bills and conduct legal research. Its workers are charged with giving all lawmakers accurate and impartial information about legislative problems.

The Council Service’s staff directory indicates it has 68 people working for it, including managers. Between 2014 and 2018, its staff maxed out at 49 people, according to its biennial reports.

The agency “really is in dire need of space that’s in proximity to other coworkers, space that allows us to hire the employees that we need to be efficient in our work,” Executive Director Shawn Casebier Casebier told the subcommittee.

In all, the Council Service needs permanent space for upwards of 13 workers, Casebier said.

The problem is particularly felt in the Council Service’s accounting department, she said, which needs eight to 10 workers to efficiently and effectively process thousands of vouchers and reimbursements. The department has only three workers, she said, after losing someone last week who moved to another state agency.

“In order for us to get up to that level of full employment in that department to effectively do their jobs, we do need more space,” Casebier said.

Their workload has increased since they started onboarding newly hired district staff for lawmakers, she said.

The number of new faces on the payroll will continue to grow. Legislators running unopposed in the elections next month can already hire district legislative aides, and those victorious in contested elections can start hiring in December.

The need for more space “is really one of the biggest arguments for that executive office building,” said Senate Majority Floor Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe).

Wirth said the executive office building “kind of got derailed a little bit, but we need to see where that is, and get it back on the tracks.”

The Santa Fe New Mexican reported in June the state General Services Department paused its proposal for the new building to allow state officials to design it in collaboration with the city of Santa Fe.

Moving state offices into the new building would help by freeing up space in the State Capitol Annex next door to the Roundhouse, Wirth said.

In the meantime, Casebier said she identified space used by House of Representatives staff on the Roundhouse’s fourth floor “that I believe would really meet our needs now and a little bit into the future.”

“I think there needs to be conversations with stakeholders and ensuring that all the people who may be affected are given the space they need as well, while recognizing that the Council Service really can’t continue to do our current job, or the work that’s going to be required of us into the future, unless we do gain some additional permanent space on the fourth floor.”

If the accountants can move there, there would be more room for the Council Service’s five-person Human Resources department, Casebier said.

HR is working out of a legislative committee room, Casebier said. Those rooms often get reserved by the committees assigned to them, so they can only be a temporary space for the workers.

“So in the next couple of weeks, months, we’re going to have to figure out a permanent space for them,” Casebier said.

Settlement enshrines tribe's rights to use part of a national preserve for cultural practices - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press

A settlement reached by the U.S. government and a Native American tribe in New Mexico signals the end to what has been a yearslong legal fight over claims to the Valles Caldera National Preserve.

Government attorneys in a filing Friday asked a federal appeals court to close out the litigation with Jemez Pueblo in light of a settlement being reached after more than a year of negotiation. The case began in 2012 when the pueblo asserted its claims to all of the preserve, which spans nearly 140 square miles (363 square kilometers).

The agreement signed by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in part recognizes the pueblo's rights to occupy and use a nearly 5-square-mile (13-square-kilometer) area for traditional cultural and religious purposes. It follows a 2023 ruling by the court that acknowledged the pueblo's title to what is known as the Banco Bonito area.

Haaland, a member of New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo and the country's first Native American Cabinet secretary, said in a statement that the nation's lands have been central to the cultural and spiritual practices of Indigenous people for generations.

"It is essential that wherever we can, we allow the original stewards of these lands to live and worship in these places," she said, adding that the federal government has been working with tribes to find more opportunities for co-stewardship of public lands that include ancestral homelands.

At Jemez Pueblo, nestled among the red canyons and mountains northwest of Albuquerque, there was excitement about the settlement and optimism about what it will mean for the tribe's relationship with federal land managers as they care for this special parcel of forested land.

Monumental is how attorney Randolph Barnhouse described it, noting that this is the first time that a tribe has successfully argued through the American judicial system and won a case where it established it had aboriginal property rights — or rights to occupy and use land as the pueblo's ancestors did.

"The beauty of this settlement is the United States government's willingness to work with the tribe to help define how that will work going forward," said Barnhouse, who represents the pueblo. "I think this is a great example. It shows how the public will still retain its rights to use these lands, but the pueblo will also have the ability to — working with the government — exercise joint stewardship over these lands."

Jemez Pueblo had argued that its aboriginal property rights were never extinguished despite a lower court ruling in 2019 that found the government had clear title to the preserve. Following an appeal and a subsequent trial, the pueblo opted to narrow its claims to four specific areas within Valles Caldera's boundaries.

The 2023 ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged the pueblo's title to Banco Bonito but rejected claims to the other areas.

Jemez Pueblo considers Valles Caldera a spiritual sanctuary and part of its traditional homeland. It's home to vast grasslands, the remnants of a massive volcanic eruption and one of New Mexico's most famous elk herds.

The court record states that for over 800 years, many tribes and pueblos have used Valles Caldera for hunting, gathering and various cultural and religious practices. Redondo Peak, the highest mountain in the caldera, is a site long used as part of religious pilgrimages and is home to several shrines.

While tribal officials have described Valles Caldera as a spiritual mother, many of the court filings have been redacted, seeking to keep secret details about traditions and culturally significant locations.

Plane crashes during air show at Las Cruces International Airport - Associated Press

A plane crashed during Sunday's air show at the Las Cruces International Airport, but there was no immediate word if the pilot survived.

Authorities said a plane went down during the second annual show of the Las Cruces Air and Space Expo and the event cancelled afterward.

The crash involved a single airplane and the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were on their way to the scene, authorities said.

An airport official said the New Mexico State Police will be leading the investigation into the crash.

Albuquerque police deputy is removed from duty in ongoing DWI scandal - Associated Press

A newly promoted police commander in Albuquerque has been removed from duty while the police department in New Mexico's largest city continues to investigate allegations of possible corruption in its DWI unit.

The DWI scandal already has mired the Albuquerque Police Department in a federal investigation, as well as an internal inquiry. At least one commander has been fired, several others have resigned, and dozens of cases have been dismissed.

Police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said Gustavo Gomez, deputy commander of the department's internal affairs division, was placed on paid leave Wednesday, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Gomez was promoted to the position in January and has been with the police department since 2008.

Gomez was an officer in the DWI unit between 2010 and 2013. His lawyer, John D'Amato, declined to comment on the case.

The FBI investigation has partly focused on DWI criminal cases filed by certain officers that ended up being dismissed in court, according to the Journal. More than 150 cases alleging that motorists drove while intoxicated have been dismissed as part of the federal investigation.

Three Albuquerque police officers combined filed 136 of the 152 DWI cases, and at least 107 of those were filed last year, which was 10% of such cases for the department that year.

No charges have been filed, and it will be up to the U.S. Attorney's Office to determine whether any federal laws were violated.

One of the last Navajo Code Talkers from World War II dies at 107 - Associated Press

John Kinsel Sr., one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages during World War II based on the tribe's native language, has died. He was 107.

Navajo Nation officials in Window Rock announced Kinsel's death on Saturday.

Tribal President Buu Nygren has ordered all flags on the reservation to be flown at half-staff until Oct. 27 at sunset to honor Kinsel.

"Mr. Kinsel was a Marine who bravely and selflessly fought for all of us in the most terrifying circumstances with the greatest responsibility as a Navajo Code Talker," Nygren said in a statement Sunday.

With Kinsel's death, only two Navajo Code Talkers are still alive: Former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald and Thomas H. Begay.

Hundreds of Navajos were recruited by the Marines to serve as Code Talkers during the war, transmitting messages based on their then-unwritten native language.

They confounded Japanese military cryptologists during World War II and participated in all assaults the Marines led in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, including at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu and Iwo Jima.

The Code Talkers sent thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications crucial to the war's ultimate outcome.

Kinsel was born in Cove, Arizona, and lived in the Navajo community of Lukachukai.

He enlisted in the Marines in 1942 and became an elite Code Talker, serving with the 9th Marine Regiment and the 3rd Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

President Ronald Reagan established Navajo Code Talkers Day in 1982 and the Aug. 14 holiday honors all the tribes associated with the war effort.

The day is an Arizona state holiday and Navajo Nation holiday on the vast reservation that occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah.