By: ABQ RAW staff
POSTED: 03/30/2023 at 12:45PM
Francisco Macias, 32
Westside Albuquerque – On March 29th, 2023 at around 6:30PM, Albuquerque Police officers were dispatched to the 4700 block of Glendale RD SW in reference to a domestic dispute between family members . Police have now identified the offender and primary aggressor of the domestic incident as 32-year-old Francisco Macias.
According to an email from APD, when the call was generated no officers were available on the entire west side to take the call for service. Also according to APD the call held for a short time, but around twenty minutes later the call was upgraded in priority because the call takers were receiving new information that the suspect Macias was now armed with a firearm. The call was then immediately dispatched.
According to a criminal complaint, when officers arrived they were flagged down by a witness who said Macias had fired his gun down the street. When officers arrived on scene they saw Macias retreating behind a Chevy Avalanche which was parked in a driveway. In a video provided by a witness, Macias raises his firearm and fires a round toward officers. The round hits the truck’s windshield and a volley of gunfire is fired by officers back at Macias. He can then be seen running off camera with another male running after him.
According to the criminal complaint, Macias then fled on foot and officers transitioned to less than lethal options and took him into custody. Officers encountered Macias as he was holding another bystander hostage, allegedly in a choke hold. Officers identified Macias holding an item in his hands, which was later determined to be a cell phone, they were able to successfully use less than lethal options, and hands on tactics to place Macias into custody.
Macias was taken to a substation for questioning and he stated the situation started over pouring out liquor from bottles in his mother’s freezer and arguments then started between the family. Macias admitted to firing several rounds in the air when things escalated with his family.
It should be noted that we were on scene with several other media outlets. Albuquerque Police media officials informed media there would be a briefing at 10PM that night about the incident. Officials then without any reasoning or justification moved the time to 10:40PM and then again to 11PM. Two media stations (KOB and KOAT) were with ABQ RAW set up for a media briefing by Chief of Police Harold Medina across the street from the incident staging area. The 11PM time frame passed with no contact from officials so the media outlets asked the on-call PIO if the briefing time was moved again. APD informed all of us that they had already gave the briefing at 11PM but it was unknown who they gave the briefing to. A follow up email was then sent by APD Officer/PIO Chase Jewell saying their was a miscommunication and he gave a summary of the events to remaining media and said a video of Chief Medina’s statement would be posted to social media if they could locate one. At the time of publishing this story, no video of Medina talking about the incident had been posted to any of APD’s social media channels. In a press conference earlier in the week Medina told media that the Chief must be at all critical incidents and we must hear from him.
Macias is charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He will have a pre-trial detention hearing.