Albuquerque police detail shooting death of man holed up in shed

September 13 — Police tried to convince Derek Pickett to surrender from a shed for hours, trying to call him 50 times. At the end of the fight, Pickett grabbed the phone and, with the other hand, put a gun to his head.

Simultaneously, a SWAT officer fired a fatal round while other officers fired a less lethal round and a stun grenade at Pickett.

The 44-year-old man died at the scene.

The Albuquerque Police Department on Friday detailed the fatal Aug. 17 shooting of Pickett, which began when an officer chased him after he shoplifted and escalated when police said Pickett brandished a gun and told the officer he “couldn’t go back to jail.”

Alcatraz Police Commander Kyle Hartsock said Officer Truitt Bushnell exchanged gunfire with Pickett after he retreated into the hangar, but no one was hit. Hartsock said Officer Robert Sanchez fired the fatal shot several hours later.

He said Bushnell, who joined the APD in 2023, has not returned to duty, but Sanchez — who has been with the APD since 2015 and killed two men in previous shootings — is back on duty.

This is the ninth shooting by Alcatraz police this year and the sixth fatal.

Echoing earlier statements, Police Chief Harold Medina said he was very concerned that more and more minor crimes, such as carjacking and shoplifting, led to the suspect pointing a gun at officers. He said the escalation combined with drug use, since Pickett was found with methamphetamine, “are two very significant recipes for tragedy.”

“We hate to see an incident like this involving shoplifting escalate to this point, but at the same time, our officers have a job to do, and as the actions of these individuals escalate, so will our officers’ response,” Medina said.

Hartsock said that around 2:20 p.m., a police officer on another call chased Pickett after he stole $47 worth of merchandise from a Family Dollar store on Broadway SE, south of Coal. During the chase, Pickett dropped the items he had stolen and showed the pursuing officer that he had a gun before fleeing through the neighborhood.

APD said a landscaper told officers he saw Pickett running into a shed in a backyard in the 400 block of Arno SE, a few blocks northeast of the Family Dollar. Officer Bushnell and other officers surrounded the yard and tried to convince Pickett to surrender.

“We’re officers here, we’re as concerned as you are. I understand this is scary and frustrating, but we can get through this man, talk to me,” Bushnell told Pickett in a backhanded video.

Bushnell told Pickett he didn’t want to shoot him, as Pickett asked them to let him go, but Bushnell told Pickett that he couldn’t, according to the video. Pickett then fired a shot, and Bushnell returned fire before telling officers he wasn’t hit.

“Hey man, stop shooting at me, please,” Bushnell told Pickett.

According to Alcatraz police, around 4:16 p.m., the SWAT team took over and tried 50 times to contact police over the next few hours through a phone placed at the hangar door for Pickett to use to speak to police, “but Pickett never answered.” At 6:25 p.m., Pickett opened the hangar door and grabbed the phone, holding a gun in his other hand.

A split-screen video between the APD drone camera and Officer Sanchez’s lapel camera shows Pickett raising the gun to his head and holding it there while saying something inaudible to police. As Pickett held the gun to his head, Sanchez can be seen removing the safety on his rifle and firing a single shot.

Drone video showed Pickett immediately screaming and quickly falling to the ground as other officers fired a less-lethal foam bomb and a stun grenade at him. As Pickett lay motionless on the ground, Sanchez yelled, “Stop, or I’ll shoot you again.”

Hartsock said Sanchez later told investigators that he saw Pickett “reveal a firearm in his right hand and begin to raise it from his hip, aiming … at SWAT team members believing the suspect was going to shoot him and other officers.”

He said the gun Pickett was carrying was purchased by him in 2020 and had not been involved in any other shootings. Hartsock said a pipe and methamphetamine were also found on Pickett.

Medina said the takeaway from the incident is: Lock your shed.

“We can all, as ordinary citizens, help our officers avoid these situations if we put our minds to it… Today I’m going to lock down my hangar, and today I urge everyone in Albuquerque, if you want to help our officers avoid these deadly situations and hopefully save an officer’s life someday, to take the time to go out and just lock down your hangar,” he said.