Helicopter, bodycam video shows armed man critically injured in shooting behind a strip mall

Finding videos takes time and effort, keep me motivated by donating to https://paypal.me/thisisbutter
-----
Albuquerque, NM - Albuquerque police shot a man, critically injuring him, on Thursday afternoon in an alleyway near 98th and Central.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said no officers were injured in the shooting. Gallegos did not identify the man shot but said he was 35 years old.

Police Chief Harold Medina said in a briefing outside the scene that the man was turning toward police with a gun in his hand when he was shot by four officers. He said it was unclear if the man had fired the gun.

Medina said police had already tried to use a less-lethal 40 mm launcher on the man to try to get him to surrender, to no avail.

The shooting happened in the same strip mall that houses El Mezquite Market, where officers shot and killed a man during a chaotic gunfight in June.

Medina said Thursday’s shooting stemmed from the suspected thefts of a truck and a “double-digit” number of guns from a storage shed.

“This was a long-term investigation,” he said. “They had been trying to track down the vehicle and locate the firearms that had been stolen.”

Medina said around 2:30 p.m., APD’s Auto Theft Unit found the stolen truck in the area of Lomas and San Mateo NE. He said they tried to pull the truck over, but the driver fled, and a police helicopter followed the vehicle for an hour.

Medina said at one point a passenger got out of the truck and ran near Lomas and Louisiana. He said officers never found that person.

Medina said the helicopter continued to follow the truck into Northwest Albuquerque, where it stopped in the strip mall parking lot.

He said the driver fled from officers into an alley behind El Mezquite Market. Medina said officers confronted the man and fired a 40 mm less-lethal round at him.

He said officers saw the man was holding a gun and gave him several commands to drop it. Medina said the man “chose to keep the firearm in his hands” and began to turn toward officers when they opened fire.

“We do not know if the individual actually discharged the firearm at this time,” he said.

Medina said the man was taken to a hospital in critical condition. He said the firearm was found at the scene and, in footage from the helicopter, could be seen falling out of the man’s hand after he was shot.