Albuquerque officer charged with DWI while off duty

Dec. 27—An Albuquerque police officer was arrested for drunken driving while off duty Thursday night on the West Side.

Truitt Bushnell, 31, is charged with aggravated DWI, speeding over 30 mph and failure to maintain a lane.

Bushnell was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center early Friday morning but was released on his own recognizance hours later. It is unclear if he has an attorney.

Including Bushnell, four local law enforcement officers have been charged with drunken driving so far this year.

Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said Bushnell has been placed on administrative leave “while an internal investigation is conducted.”

“We will move forward with an internal investigation, while criminal charges are handled by the judicial system,” APD Chief Harold Medina said in a statement.

Bushnell was involved in a police shooting on Aug. 17, when he exchanged fire with a suspected shoplifter but missed, before another officer killed the man during a standoff.

Bushnell joined APD in 2023 and was assigned to the Valley Area Command.

Around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputy was driving north on Coors when he spotted a truck going 80 mph in a 45 mph zone and crossing over lanes, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. The deputy pulled over the truck and the deputy said Bushnell, the driver, had “bloodshot and watery eyes” and smelled of alcohol.

Deputies said Bushnell told them he was “coming from his friend’s house” and had not drunk anything. The deputy went back to his vehicle and when he returned, Bushnell was chewing gum “at a fast rate.”

Bushnell told the deputy he couldn’t perform a physical sobriety test because of injuries he received in the military and law enforcement, according to the complaint. Bushnell then “did not perform well” on alternative sobriety tests the deputy gave him.

“I explained to (Bushnell) that I had been doing this job for a decent amount of time and could tell he had in fact consumed alcohol,” the deputy wrote in the complaint.

The deputy offered Bushnell a breath test to prove him wrong, but he refused and told the deputy he wanted a blood test, the complaint states.

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