Video shows aftermath of crash involving Albuquerque police chief
**Editor’s Note: This story has been modified after its original publication to add more detail about one of the clips of body camera video featured at the end of the video story.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Police video shows the crash involving Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina on Central last month was far different than the situations APD officers usually respond to, and some officers knew it.
Officer: “Chief was here parked on the north side of Central and Alvarado.”
Police video shows the officers who responded to the crash involving their boss, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, back in February as he said he was trying to avoid gunfire.
Officer: “Chief is at the line of fire, so he gets out of there.”
The Chief says he and his wife were in an unmarked car next to where a fight broke out. After seeing a gun, Medina says he sped off to avoid being in the line of fire when he hit and seriously injured a man in his 1966 Mustang.
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After the crash, the video shows Medina stuck around, talking with officers.
Officer: “How you doing, sir?”
Medina: “I was more worried about my poor wife. She never comes to press conferences on Saturday, so just come with me, and I’ll take you to breakfast afterward, and she’s all like, ‘some breakfast, buddy.'”
As the investigation progressed, Medina continued recounting what happened, pointing out a single bullet casing near where he witnessed a fight.
Medina: “Yeah, I’m glad we found the shell casing; nobody ran it over.”
Officer: “Yeah, at least one.”
Medina: “No, I only heard one shot.”
It was a unique situation as Chief Medina, both a witness to a crime and a driver involved in a car crash, was allowed to freely roam the crime scene.
Medina: “They are just going to have detectives interview me.”
He, not only described the situation to officers but, dictated how to handle it and pointed detectives in the direction of where he thought one of the two men in the fight may have gone.
Medina: “He went, and he told me ‘I’m not hit,’ and I thought he had gotten shot. There’s no way he missed; it was like from me to you.”
One officer made it clear that this was an unusual situation.
Officer: “Hey sir, so.. I know this is weird now, but I had two officers at Central and Penn are you…”
Medina: “No.”
Officer: “Can we disregard that?”
Medina: “I think we can disregard that for now.”
An Albuquerque Police spokesperson clarified Friday afternoon that the conversation between the Chief and the officer about “Central and Penn” was in reference to preparation for a news conference that Chief Medina had initially intended to go to. APD says the “two officers” were placed near the intersection of Central and Pennsylvania, miles away from the crash scene, in preparation for a City of Albuquerque news conference that was canceled due to the Chief’s involvement in the crash.
APD says the crash is still under internal investigation.
