Transit security officers on leave for throwing man into busy street
Albuquerque NM October 26 2019
Two Albuquerque transit security officers have been on paid leave for more than two and half months while the district attorney considers filing criminal charges against one of them.
It’s all stemming from a July incident that was caught on camera in which one of the security guards is seen throwing a man into the middle of a busy city street.
The man, John Anthony Lopez, was nearly struck by a car and had to be taken to the hospital.
“My head almost got hit by that wheel,” Lopez said while watching surveillance video obtained by Target 7. “I didn’t do anything to deserve that, you know.”
The incident led to an Albuquerque police investigation. According to a report obtained by Target 7, detectives noted “there was no legal ground” to detain Lopez, security guards “unreasonably used force” to put him on the pavement and “at this time (the security officer) will be a suspect for false imprisonment and battery.”
APD turned the case over to the DA’s office Aug. 5.
In an email to Target 7, Michael Patrick, spokesman for the DA’s office said the case is still being reviewed.
“If I laid my hands on him, I would have gone to jail that day, and most definitely charges would have been filed on me,” Lopez said.
Johnny Chandler, a city spokesman, said that the city is taking the incident seriously.
The Department of Municipal Development, which oversees the security officers, launched its own internal investigation into the incident. No determination has been made about their future employment.
“Immediately the next day, they were not allowed to report to work,” Chandler said. “We take this incredibly seriously, and any report of misconduct we will take seriously and investigate.”
The transit security officers are not sworn or certified police officers.
They do not carry firearms. They do, however, carry pepper spray.
At the time of the incident, the city had just started the process of reorganizing the officers.
They were being transferred from transit to city security, which has more than 200 officers who watch over city-owned facilities.
Their uniforms, equipment and training were being changed.
According to police reports, on July 24, the two transit security officers were dealing with an “unruly person” at the Alvarado Transit Center and were escorting him off the property when the individual attempted to punch one of the transit scurity officers.
One security officer used pepper spray on the man while he was standing on First Street.
He ran off into a nearby movie theater, and the officers chased after him. They cuffed him and took him out of the theater and back to Alvarado Transit Center. That’s where Lopez was waiting for a bus. He was coming home from work.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” Lopez said. “I looked at them, and I knew they weren’t cops. I knew they shouldn’t be doing this.”
Lopez said he was telling the officers that they couldn’t do what they were doing and was in the process of taking out his cellphone to record the incident when the officer “attacked him.”
“He was coming up to me with all of his weight and went boom, and I went flying,” Lopez said. “The asphalt was hot. I lift my cheek up from there, and then he just stomped my head in. Right there, I believe I blacked out from the pressure.”
According to police reports, cameras at the transit center didn’t adequately capture the incident. However, a bus equipped with cameras that was passing by did.
Lopez was eventually cuffed, taken to the hospital and treated for his injuries. He was also given a “no trespass order,” meaning if he ever returns to the stop, he could be charged with trespassing.
Since the incident, he raised enough money working as a mason to buy a car.
He no longer has to take the bus.
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