Nov. 6—Matthew Sanchez yelled, “I got a gun right here,” as he approached police from a mobile home in Southeast Albuquerque. The three officers didn’t know Sanchez’s gun was out of bullets.
Lapel video showed that one officer pointed her gun at Sanchez but looked away — appearing to flinch — before pulling the trigger. One of the bullets went through the bicep and arm of the officer in front of her.
The other eight bullets fired by police left Sanchez, 41, dead in the street.
The Albuquerque Police Department released lapel camera video Tuesday of the Oct. 13 shooting that left officer Jeff Schwarzel injured by friendly fire after he and officers Reanna Torres and Vanesa Zuniga shot at Sanchez. Torres tells Schwarzel, as he screams expletives, that she may have accidentally shot him while she ties a tourniquet around his arm.
None of the officers has been in a previous police shooting while with APD.
Zuniga and Torres joined APD in 2021, while Schwarzel came to the department in 2023 after working as an officer in another state for 23 years, according to APD.
APD Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock said the gun wielded by Sanchez matched bullet casings from the suicide of a juvenile. He said the suicide was initially investigated as a homicide, and the gun was not found at the scene.
APD Chief Harold Medina refused to give anymore details about the gun, saying it would be brought up at a future news conference to discuss “the flow of guns through juveniles and the impact it has within the city.”
“It is an interesting story that has two tragic endings,” he said.
Medina said the investigation had yet to determine if it was officer Torres’ or Zuniga’s bullet that struck Schwarzel in the bicep before going into his hand.
“We’ve done a really good job as a police department in separating misconduct from mistakes,” Medina said. “When there’s something that’s done misconduct-wise, they’re held accountable. When mistakes happen, we work through training and we work through other means, if possible, to correct the issue.”
Sanchez was struck by multiple bullets and died at the scene.
An online obituary described Sanchez, a father of two, as “very talented and everyone’s favorite.”
“There was nothing that could break him. He was everyone’s super hero,” according to the obituary. “… He was the most patient, loving, kind hearted person once you got to know him.”
Hartsock said a 911 call came in sometime before 11:20 p.m. on Oct. 13 about a domestic dispute in the 10800 block of Central, east of Eubank. The caller told police her stepmother and stepmother’s boyfriend, Sanchez, were fighting in the mobile home.
In the 911 call, gunshots can be heard in the background and the girl told dispatch Sanchez was firing a gun outside the mobile home, saying, “I guess he has a gun.” Hartsock said police would later learn that Sanchez fired all the bullets from the gun at that time.
Hartsock said Schwarzel, Torres and Zuniga approached the mobile home.
Upon Schwarzel announcing their presence, Sanchez walks out of a front yard yelling, “You want to (expletive) around?” Zuniga yells, “Do not come near us,” as Sanchez marches toward them.
Zuniga and Schwarzel fire at Sanchez first before Torres, her head turned away, pulled the trigger. Schwarzel immediately starts screaming in pain and Torres, attending to him, says she’s “worried” she shot him.
Schwarzel tells Torres not to worry “about that” and focus on treating his injuries.
Hartsock said, after the shooting, Torres told APD investigators that Sanchez approached “verbally and physically aggressive” and she raised her gun, afraid of being shot.
Medina said that Torres also told investigators she “started to turn her head in anticipation of getting struck.”
“When you have human beings who are put in situations where they need to react, sometimes things are going to occur,” he said.
Medina later added, “Without a doubt, anybody who’s ever had a firearm pointed at them would tell you that the biggest focus of their world, at that moment in time, becomes the gun that’s pointed in their direction.”
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