Officer Dillon Sather had graduated from the Albuquerque Police Department academy Oct. 22. The shooting was the first he was involved in, and he had been training with another officer at the time. Lopez was wanted on a bench warrant for failing to appear at a pretrial hearing in Sandoval County in mid-November. He had been charged in children’s court with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon against a household member. According to court documents, he “touched or applied force” against his mother with a kitchen knife. Deputy Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock of the Criminal Investigations Division said officers first became aware of Lopez when they were called to the Villa Hermosa apartment complex at 2600 Americare NW, near Coors and Quail. The ShotSpotter gunshot detection system had alerted police to gunfire, and within minutes multiple callers had reported gunshots to 911 as well. When officers arrived they were told the gunfire had originated from a specific apartment and after checking police reports and other records, they determined Lopez was known to stay there and was wanted on a warrant. Hartsock said the apartment was rented by one of Lopez’s family members. “From 7:50 a.m. – about the time they arrived, until 9:27 a.m. when the shooting occurred – officers conducted research on this individual and on the individuals inside the apartment,” Hartsock said. “They waited for more resources to show up from the police department to make sure the area was safe and secured. And they near nonstop asked all the occupants of the apartment to please exit and surrender peacefully.” Officer Dillon Sather (APD) Eventually two occupants came out, Hartsock said. He said officers could see Lopez through a window and told him he was wanted on a warrant and to surrender, but instead he retreated into the home. Then a young woman or teenage girl came out and talked to officers and at that point, Lopez ran from the apartment. Lapel camera video shows Lopez run by Sather and two other officers – including another trainee – and in the direction of another officer who was stationed behind a police SUV. At that point, Sather fired. “Officer Sather stated in his interview that he felt Mr. Lopez was going to shoot the officer who was now behind the police vehicle as Mr. Lopez was running, or that he was going to shoot at the three officers stationed by the building which could strike them or possibly strike any of the occupants inside the apartment complex,” Hartsock said. Video shows a bloodied Lopez yell out that he had been hit and asked to go to the hospital as Sather handcuffed him and checked him for injuries. While initially Lopez was kneeling and talking, he eventually appeared to lose consciousness. Hartsock showed a photo of two guns he said Lopez was armed with when he was shot and said that preliminary analysis showed that one of them is “linked to several gun crimes in the city over the past several months.” Medina said the history of the gun was “very interesting” and police would get into that more later since it’s part of an active investigation. Lopez faces juvenile detention Investigators are still trying to determine if one of the guns was what sparked the initial ShotSpotter call. After Lopez is released from the hospital he will be booked into a juvenile detention center on his warrant. Sather has returned to work in the same area command and is scheduled to complete his training in February. As per policy, the Internal Affairs Force Division will investigate the shooting to see if any policies were violated, and a multiagency task force made up of area law enforcement will investigate and turn over the case to the District Attorney’s Office for possible prosecution. Two guns Albuquerque police say 16-year-old Jesus Lopez was carrying when he was shot by an officer. (Courtesy of APD) The shooting was the ninth by APD in 2021. Four were fatal. Ryan Villa, who is representing Lopez in the domestic violence case, said he has been told his client’s lungs were severely damaged and he has had several surgeries, and had a chest tube put in. He said he has talked to Lopez’s sister, since his mother primarily speaks Spanish. “The family is very distraught,” Villa said. “The hardest part is not being able to talk to Jesus. He’s in custody because of the warrant and so he hasn’t been able to talk to his mom or his sister, even on the phone.” Villa was appointed as Lopez’s attorney after the shooting and said that since then he has also been trying to help the family navigate what to do. “The little bit that I know about the criminal case is his mom does want to work it out and help her son…,” Villa said. “I haven’t questioned her about what happened, most of the discussions we’ve had has been to explain to her the legal process that’s going on now … next steps, how we’re going to get the information to investigate what happened in Albuquerque.”