Man charged in May homicide off East Central
Jul. 6—Federal authorities arrested an 18-year-old Tuesday morning who allegedly fatally shot a man in May and dumped him in an East Central neighborhood.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Jimmie Glisson said around 10:30 a.m. the agency took Adrian Sanchez of Bandera, Texas, into custody after a short foot chase near Juan Tabo and Candelaria NE.
Glisson said two marshals were hurt during the pursuit — one with a strained calf and another injured their ankle. He said they were assessed at a hospital and released.
"Arrests like this one are reminders of how dangerous these operations can be," U.S. Marshal for New Mexico Sonya K. Chávez said in a statement. "Thankfully, everyone is safe now and our community has one less violent offender on the streets of Albuquerque."
Sanchez is charged with an open count of murder, possession of a firearm by a felon and tampering with evidence in the May 5 death of Jesus Lopez, 29.
He is also wanted in a Jan. 1 incident in Bandera where he allegedly beat a man and two women with a baseball bat.
Sanchez was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Wednesday. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court:
Police responded around 11 p.m. to the 200 block of Garcia NE, near Central and Moon, after a gunshot detection device recorded gunfire. Officers found Lopez lying in the middle of the road with several gunshot wounds and he died at the scene.
A neighbor told police someone had knocked on his door and he saw a man drag a person out of the back of a car and drive away.
On June 29, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office identified Sanchez as a suspect in Lopez's death through an unrelated homicide investigation. Detectives searched Sanchez's Instagram account and found messages to a friend showing off his blood-spattered car and Nike Air Jordans.
Sanchez shared an article on the homicide and told the friend he shot Lopez multiple times in the car and Lopez had fired at him once but missed. In the messages, Sanchez asked the friend to have someone tell police they saw Lopez pull a gun on him before being shot so it sounded like a robbery.
The friend responded he had one of his acquaintances report it as a robbery.
The friend went on to say they should invest in silencers and suggested they take Lopez to the middle of the forest before shooting him.
