Category: Courts, Justice & Safety

In the year and a half since Muhammad Syed was arrested and charged in the fatal shootings of three Muslim men, his family — refugees from Afghanistan — has remained in Albuquerque. One of his children got divorced. Another enrolled in community college to study to be a dental hygienist after pleading guilty to a […]

Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment in a series titled Downtown Albuquerque Reboot, about the city’s center, its challenges and the plans to address them. Read about why the area matters here, about vacant buildings here, peruse a photo essay about lowriders here, and end with what the area has to offer here. On […]

A fourth Albuquerque Police Department officer has resigned rather than be interviewed as part of an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct by DWI officers. Nelson Ortiz resigned Thursday, according to a news release.   “Investigators were attempting to schedule an interview with Ortiz, but he decided to resign,” the release states. Ortiz, who joined APD […]

A third officer under investigation for corruption within the Albuquerque Police Department’s DWI unit has resigned before being interviewed by internal investigators.  Harvey Johnson resigned on Wednesday. Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesperson, said he was scheduled to be interviewed for the internal investigation today.  Johnson is one of six APD officers who were put on […]

Twelve days ago, local homicide detectives were called to a Northeast Albuquerque apartment complex to investigate a woman’s death after she was found “unresponsive” by her family.  Now it’s been more than a week and her death has been reported by national — and even international — outlets, including the New York Post, The Daily […]

As Muslims began their Ramadan fasts on Monday, Muhammad Syed — an Afghan refugee who came to Albuquerque in 2016 — prepared to face a jury on one count of murder in the 2022 slaying of a fellow Muslim, Aftab Hussein.  It is the first of three trials in a case that shook Albuquerque’s Muslim […]

As the federally mandated reform of the Albuquerque Police Department closes in on 10 years — and the end is in sight — community policing groups have begun thinking about what comes next.  With that in mind, a policing expert who has worked on consent decrees in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md., visited the Southwest […]

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, the lobby of 505 Marquette Ave. is permeated with the comforting aroma of “better than movie theater” popcorn and the warm laughter of an Albuquerque man who loves making people’s days better.  Not everyone who enters the lobby of the building is having their best day. The building houses the […]