Albuquerque police describe fatal shooting of wounded officer by friendly fire

November 6 – Matthew Sanchez shouted, “I have a gun here,” as he approached police from a mobile home in Southeast Albuquerque. The three officers did not know that there were no more bullets in Sánchez’s gun.

The lapel video showed an officer pointing her gun at Sanchez but looking away — as if flinching — 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 41-year-old Sanchez dead in the street.

Albuquerque police on Tuesday released lapel camera video of the Oct. 13 shooting in which Officer Jeff Schwarzel was wounded by friendly fire after he and Officers Reanna Torres and Vanesa Zuniga shot at Sanchez. Torres tells Schwarzel, while shouting expletives, that she may have accidentally shot him while tying a tourniquet around his arm.

None of the officers have previously been involved in a police shooting while with the 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, APD said.

APD Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock said Sanchez’s gun matched shell casings from a juvenile’s suicide. He said the suicide was initially investigated as a homicide, and the weapon was not found at the scene.

APD Chief Harold Medina declined to provide more details about the weapon, saying it would be brought up at a future news conference to discuss “the flow of youth weapons and the impact it is having in the city.”

“It’s an interesting story with two tragic endings,” he said.

Medina said the investigation has yet to determine whether it was Officer Torres or Zuniga’s bullet that struck Schwarzel in the bicep before landing in his hand.

“We have done a very good job as a police department in separating misconduct from mistakes,” Medina said. “If something goes wrong, they are held accountable. If mistakes occur, we work through training and, if possible, work with other means to correct the problem.”

Sánchez was hit by several bullets and died on the spot.

In an online obituary, Sanchez, a father of two, was described as “very talented and everyone’s favorite.”

“There was nothing that could break him. He was everyone’s superhero,” the obituary said. “…He was the most patient, loving and kind-hearted person once you got to know him.”

Hartsock said sometime before 11:20 p.m. on Oct. 13, a 911 call came in about a domestic dispute in the 10800 block of Central, east of Eubank. The caller told police that her stepmother and her stepmother’s boyfriend, Sanchez, were arguing at the mobile home.

During the 911 call, gunshots can be heard in the background and the girl told dispatch that Sanchez fired a gun outside the mobile home and said, “I think he has a gun.” Hartsock said police would later learn that Sanchez had fired all the bullets from the gun at that point.

Hartsock said Schwarzel, Torres and Zuniga approached the mobile home.

When Schwarzel announces their presence, Sanchez walks out of a front yard and shouts, “Do you want to (expletive) walk around?” Zuniga shouts, “Don’t come near us,” as Sánchez marches toward them.

Zuniga and Schwarzel shot Sanchez first before Torres, her head turned away, pulled the trigger. Schwarzel immediately starts screaming in pain and Torres, who is caring for him, says she is “scared” that she has shot him.

Schwarzel tells Torres not to worry about “that” and to focus on treating his injuries.

Hartsock said that after the shooting, Torres told APD investigators that Sanchez approached “verbally and physically aggressively” and that she raised her gun, afraid of being shot.

Medina said Torres also told investigators that she “started turning her head in anticipation of being hit.”

“When you have people who are put in situations where they have to respond, sometimes things are going to happen,” he said.

Medina later added, “Without a doubt, anyone who has ever had a firearm pointed at them would tell you that the main focus of their world at that moment becomes the gun pointed at them.”