APD Releases More Details Reference to Controversial Shooting of Handcuffed Suspect

Albuquerque –

Today the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) released more details about a contraversial officer-involved shooting on Oct. 18, 2024, at the Tewa Lodge, located at 5715 Central Ave. NE. Matthew Garcia, the handcuffed and armed suspect, was shot several times by officers and he later died at the scene from his injuries.

The Albuquerque Police Department held a press conference at their headquarters with media to go over the controversial shooting that has left some community members stunned about the ultimate outcome.

During the press conference, APD Police Chief Harold Medina and Commander Kyle Hartsock broke down what they believe led to two APD officers firing their duty weapons at a handcuffed but armed Matthew “Solo” Garcia after he had sat in a police car for over 45 minutes with a loaded gun presumably concealed in his lower back area. Garcia had made comments that he was suicidal, but none of the ACS staff on site with officers were summoned to assist with his suicidal thoughts.

We noticed in the video several city officials were on scene as the incident unfolded to include the University Area Commander, Ray DelGreco.

Things that we observed during the press conference videos was that APD Officer Precious Cadena immediately detained Garcia because he was becoming unruly with them on scene. However, before Officer Cadena put Garcia into the back of her patrol car she did NOT properly pat him down nor searched him in any way. Conversations were had amongst officers over the 45 minutes in the back of the police car that Garcia had not been searched yet but it was never done.

“Hey, can you just keep eyes on him, please? He’s moving a lot, and I haven’t searched him yet,” said Officer Cadena in the officers body camera clip marked at 12:12PM.

Seven minutes later after these comments Garcia and other officers struggle for a concealed gun hidden by Garcia. Officers Cadena and Earles ultimately shoot Garcia while he still sat in the back of the patrol car.

We asked at the press conference whether federal laws had changed or internal APD policies changed that prevented officers from patting down or searching people before putting them in police cars. We wanted to know why Garcia was not patted down by Officer Cadena prior to being put into the squad car.

“That’s what the internal investigation is going to tell. I know through my training, like, years ago, I was very adamant if I was able to handcuff somebody before searching them, I would. Because it makes it so much easier to search them then get in a fight with them,” said Chief Medina.

Chief Medina went on to say how things have changed the way searches are conducted from the olden days on citizens at APD because of the DOJ decree and civil rights restrictions.

APD did release a few clips to media from the shooting which were shown during the press conference. The clips were highly edited and not the FULL 48 plus minutes version of when APD officers actually first made contact with Garcia until they ultimately turned off their body cameras.

APD Police Chief Harold Medina has touted on several occasions his total transparency when it comes to officer involved shootings, but lately the department has only been releasing snippets from OIS incidents. This latest release the longest video was one minute and thirty seconds in length. The videos release do NOT show when they actually made contact with Garcia inside the Tewa Hotel room and the whole incident or what made them go to him in the first place.

During the day of the incident, APD’s Public Information office said Garcia was transported to the hospital with gunshot wounds. We arrived on scene to see Garcia’s body covered up with a white blanket and crime scene tape around him. Family members went to the hospital in hopes of finding Garcia after other media outlets reported Garcia had been transported to a local hospital. Family members and several other angry friends and acquaintances returned to the scene from the hospital with a vengeance and his alleged wife at one point even crossed crime scene tape demanding to see her dead husband’s body and she wanted answers. “You motherfuckers shot my husband!,” she yelled.

Chief Medina has noted the past few press conferences that misinformation is being spread by “people”. We have asked about this on other occasions and he states that sometimes misinformation gets out into the public without him naming any specific sources who are spreading the misinformation. At the end of todays press conference, we again asked about misinformation being shared, and why as the incident was unfolding, APD’s PIO stated on X that Garcia was transported to a local area hospital, when in fact Garcia died on scene. Chief Medina stated that:

“they (APD) are very fast with the information that we have, and I will apologize. I will stand here and apologize. Sometimes that early misinformation we put out his inaccurate and we have to correct that information later, we don’t always have the most accurate information but we are attempting to be as transparent and honest with the community and sometimes the information we get to ourselves is inaccurate, and we will do our very best to correct it as as quickly as possible.”

APD civilian employee, Director of Communications Gilbert Gallegos, has been critical of our news outlets’ reporting and will nitpick at our accuracy in indirect e-mails sent to us by him. We have received a few e-mails from Gallegos about the way we report information from our developing stories. We have also being publicly called out on X by the official department X account and Gilbert’s PIO account, which led to Gallegos engaging in attacks towards the public who openly defend us.

Another media outlet asked a pertinent question about “does treating suspects with dignity and respect – the deescalating training because of the DOJ, did it possibly doom the officers in this incident?”. Chief Medina answered yes, because they may have feared using force and having an IA lodged against them.

FULL PRESS CONFERENCE:

Below is the timeline APD gave to the public about this shooting:

Code Enforcement Concerns

On Oct. 11, 2024, Albuquerque’s Code Enforcement contacted the owner of the Tewa Lodge after multiple complaints about crime and poor property conditions. The owner admitted he felt unsafe and had “lost control” of the motel, asking for help from Code Enforcement and APD.

Officials met with the owner again on Oct. 16, and a Notice of Inspection was posted on the motel’s units. The inspection was set for Oct. 18, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. APD worked with other city departments to conduct the inspection.

Incident Timeline

• 11:15 a.m.     Officers with APD’s Proactive Response Team worked with Code Enforcement personnel as they made contact with occupants of several people at the motel, 

• 11:30 a.m.     An officer attempted to speak with a man inside Unit #20, which was on the southwest side of the motel closest to Central Ave. The man questioned why the officer asked him to exit the apartment. Officers explained the Code Enforcement process and said Code Enforcement personnel would go into the room to inspect it. The man explained that the room was not his room, but officers told him he still had to exit the room. As he exited the room, the man made a comment about the officers being worried about weapons in the room. A woman also exited the room. Both the man and woman told police that a third person was in the shower.
• One officer later told investigators that she initially noticed a green pill bottle hanging on a chain around the man’s neck. She also told officers at the scene that she suspected he had Fentanyl pills in the bottle. 

• 11:32 a.m.     The man initially told officers his name was Jose Garcia and provided a false date of birth. Officers checked police databases but were not able to confirm his identity. When officers told the man they believed he was concealing his identity, he started to get upset. Officer Precious Cadena told the man he was making her nervous and she was going to detain him in handcuffs. At that point, the man said, “OK, I’ll give you my name. I’ll give you my name.”
• 11:38 a.m.     As officers place him in handcuffs, he got more agitated. Officers explained he was just being detained and not under arrest. An APD sergeant approached the area and told officers to put the man into the back of the police vehicle.
• 11:39 a.m.     After walking him around the back of the car, the man become combative while he was in handcuffs. While one officer held on to the man’s arm, Officer Cadena started putting gloves on her hands. She later told investigators was going to begin a pat down, but when she told him he was under arrest, the man purposely hit his forehead on the glass of her vehicle. Officer Cadena placed her hand between the man’s forehead and the glass so he could not hit his head again. A third officer assisted as all three officers placed him into the back of the vehicle. The man lunged into the back of the vehicle and lay on his back.
• 11:40 a.m.     As he lay in the back of the vehicle, officers, including a sergeant attempted to de-escalate the situation. Although he appeared to calm down, the man told officers, “I’m going to kill myself.” The sergeant told him they were not going to allow him to do that. Officers worked for another 12 minutes to de-escalate and convince the man to give them his real identity.
• 11:52 a.m.     Officer Cadena allowed the man to smoke a cigarette. After he smoked, Officer Cadena talked to the woman who had been inside the room with the man and she said the man goes by the nickname of “Solo.” Officer Cadena used the information to locate the name of Matthew Garcia, with the nickname of “Solo,” and determined that was his real identity. Another officer also arrived and confirmed the name of Matthew based on a previous encounter.
• 12:09 p.m.     While waiting to confirm three warrants that appeared in databases for Matthew Garcia, Officer Cadena removed the chain with the pill bottle from his neck and placed it in the front of her vehicle as potential evidence of drug possession. Officer returned to the driver’s seat of her car to continue to work on confirming Garcia’s warrants. As she did so, she asked other officers to continue to keep an eye on Garcia. She said, “He’s moving a lot, and I haven’t searched him yet.”
• 12:17 p.m.     After confirming Garcia’s warrants, Officer Cadena tells other officers she is going to take Garcia to the Metro Detention Center, and she asked Officer Zachary Earles to follow her. Officer Cadena tells officers that Garcia made a statement about wanting to die, rather than going back to jail. Another officer noted that Garcia had a lot of bulges in his clothes, and Officer Cadena responded, “He has something in there. That’s why I asked you to watch him.”
• 12:19 p.m.     Officers opened the door to the police vehicle and told Garcia to step out. Garcia told them: “You guys really don’t want to do this.” Officer Perry said, “I don’t know what that means but you have to step out right now.” As Garcia asked why, Officer Cadena noticed something in his hand and asked him what he had. Garcia said he had a gun. As Officer Cadena reached into the car, she said, “Yo, dude, cut your shit, bro.” Garcia resisted and appeared to say, “You’re gonna fucking die.”

As Officer Cadena reached for Garcia’s gun, Officer Perry stepped in and reached around both sides of Garcia who was twisting his body to the right. Officer Perry later told investigators he saw the barrel of the gun starting to come toward the direction of Precious. “All I can think of is either he’s gonna shoot me or Precious. I grabbed the gun and I immediately starting in a way, pushing away. As I’m doing that I hear a gunshot.”

As Officer Perry wrestled with Garcia over the gun, officers yelled that he had a gun. Officer Earles also tried to grab the gun. He later told investigators he felt Garcia’s finger in the trigger guard and saw the barrel of the gun move up in the direction of Officer Perry’s face. Officer Earles fired several times toward Garcia.

Officer Cadena said after she tried to pull the firearm from Garcia, she feared he would shoot her or the other two officers. She said she fired several shots.

Officers Cadena and Earles fired their weapons, shooting a total of 11 rounds. Officer Cadena fired seven rounds and Officer Earles fired four rounds. Garcia died at the scene as a result of the gunshot wounds.

Investigation and Findings

• Officers found Garcia had a loaded handgun with 12 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, but there was no evidence he fired it.
• A green pill bottle on Garcia contained four pills suspected to be Fentanyl. Garcia said the bottle held his mother’s ashes.
• Inside the motel room, investigators found a pellet gun and a box of rifle ammunition. As a convicted felon, Garcia was not allowed to have firearms or ammunition.

APD is continuing its investigation, interviewing witnesses, and completing forensic tests. The Multi-Agency Task Force will send its findings to the District Attorney’s Office for review.

Involved Officers

• Officer Precious Cadena: Joined APD in 2021, no prior officer-involved shootings.
• Officer Zachary Earles: Joined APD in 2021, involved in two prior officer-involved shootings. – During the presser, a media member stated the power point said Earles has one OIS but the packet said two. There was a discussion during the presser and they claim this is the second OIS – not two prior, plus this incident.

Q&A’s by the Media

Chief Medina started the press conference talking about misinformation and misinformation being spread, but never elaborated on what misinformation he was referring to. Later in the presser, he again referred to misinformation about this incident in particular. We never learned what misinformation was exactly stated or by whom.

During the Q&As, Chief Medina implored with gun owners to lock your guns up, when it is not on your person. He stated that just securing it in a center console, that does not count as securing the firearm. He also talked about making sure to report stolen firearms quickly in the event they are used in a crime.

You can read previous stories on this here: