BY: ABQ RAW staff
POSTED: 02/20/2024 @ 3:45PM
© 2024 ABQRAW All Rights Reserved – Please Request Permission Before Disseminating on Other Social Media Platforms.
Albuquerque –
Today, ABQ RAW received from APD a link to a video called “The Daily 49”, it is a video that is sent to civilian and sworn APD staff about things happening within the department and city. Chief of Police Harold Medina did a video statement to the department about his weekend car crash that happened on 02/17/2024.
In the video, Chief Medina mentions he was out of town all last week on a work conference and came back to town late Friday night. On Saturday morning he wanted to bring his wife to a morning press conference that was located in the War Zone of Albuquerque and they could have a valentines day dinner afterwards.
“We got ready, and as we went in, we stopped for a cup of coffee and we were talking on the way to the southeast for the press conference when we were driving down Central. And I noticed that there could possibly be a homeless encampment on Alvarado, north of Central. As most area commanders are well aware, I point this out and ask that they get them cleaned up when they can,” said Chief Medina
Medina goes on to say:
“They were two individuals. I do not know if they were homeless, but they were in some type of argument. I reached down to hit my radio and to hit the horn on my control console. When my wife stated gun gun. I looked up and I could hear that a shot had been fired and I saw an individual that was holding a firearm, pointing at another individual who is directly in line with my wife.”
“I was the victim of this traffic accident, and it’s a direct impact of what gun violence is doing to our community. And we need to continue to work at it. I did call out I did submit to a drug test, as any officer would,” said Chief Medina.
Chief Medina did admit and self report he did not have his body camera turned on during the beginning of the incident. While on scene we did observe Chief Medina does wear his body camera on his hip. It is not a policy violation to wear it on his hip.
In an email from civilian public information officer Rebecca Atkins it stated:
Through the investigation conducted by APD’s Fatal Crash Unit, it has been confirmed that Chief’s accounts of the incident were accurate. Crash data determined that Chief Medina was at a full stop at Central and Alvarado. The data then shows that Chief Medina accelerated and tried hitting the breaks just before the crash occurred.
We asked for the crash report from APD but as is their standard policy of APD public affairs we were ignored.
We reached out to Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department, and the New Mexico State Police to see if they helped with the investigation into the crash. Both agencies said no and they were not asked to help.
(story continues)
In ABQ RAW’s own analysis of APD’s standard operating procedure we have observed at least 4 violations in the S.O.P. stemming from what Chief Medina did that day. Sadly when you are investigating yourselves it will most likely find no discipline is necessary since it was a command level person involved. If this was a beat officer making these same errors they would most likely be given no less than 240 hours of suspension or flat out terminated.
The day of the shooting and crash, we were on the way to a scheduled press conference at the Adams Market on Central and Pennsylvania NE. The press conference was to be hosted by Mayor Keller and Chief Medina. While on the way to the event, we got an email that said: “This press conference has been CANCELED for today and will be rescheduled for a later time”. We immediately learned that the reason the event was canceled was because Chief Medina and his wife had gotten into a crash while patrolling the SE area command in his city-issued unmarked police truck.
Earlier today, Albuquerque Crime Stoppers also put out a description of a possible suspect vehicle and person involved in the incident:
The shooter is described as a white male, 30-40s in age, with a long red beard. If you have any information about this incident or the suspect/vehicle, please contact Crime Stoppers.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers, anonymously at (505) 843-STOP (7867) or p3tips.com/531
ABQ RAW has requested many records related to this incident including camera footage, the APD crash report, radio data, and phone records. We will keep you updated as or if we get them.