Police chief praises officer restraint in protest

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A day after a peaceful protest over recent Albuquerque police shootings turned violent, the city's new police chief commended officers for showing remarkable restraint.

Chief Gorden Eden says protesters hunted down police, threw rocks and bottles, and spit on them.

Eden says officials decided to disperse the crowd with tear gas late Sunday after one man pulled out an AK-47, other streamed onto Interstate 25, and unruly crowds trapped people and officers in cars and started attacking each other.

There was only one minor injury in the fracas, an officer who hurt his knee. Four protesters were arrested.

Albuquerque police have been involved in 37 shootings since 2010, 23 of them fatal.

Eden, who has been on the job for just a month, says he is working on reforming the department's recruiting process.