Jul. 29—The Albuquerque Police Department on Tuesday gave a play-by-play and released video from a shooting in Southwest Albuquerque that left an autistic man in critical condition.
APD shared lapel video and other evidence from the July 4 shooting that left 21-year-old Jerry Baldonado injured with three gunshot wounds. Baldonado pointed an airsoft pellet gun at officers before being shot.
The incident was the ninth Albuquerque police shooting in 2025, and there have been 10 total. Six of those shootings have been fatal.
“This incident is just really a reflection of what we’re going through as a community and as a state,” said Police Chief Harold Medina during the briefing. “This individual was very developmentally disabled. We are currently working with the state, Adult Protective Services, and other entities in the state to make sure that we get this individual health care and into a better environment.”
Baldonado is currently in the hospital, having been shot in the arm, leg and stomach. He is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Baldonado was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon upon a peace officer. Because of Baldonado’s mental health diagnosis, Medina said APD does not want to book him into the Metropolitan Detention Center. Instead, APD will assist in getting Baldonado medical help.
Commander Jeff Barnard, who oversees APD’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, said officers were dispatched at 12:20 p.m. to a house in the 2100 block of South Branch SW, near Gibson and Messina, after receiving a call from Baldonado, who told officers that his younger brother had hit him and had a gun.
Upon arriving, officer Dominic Sanchez — who has been with APD since 2014 and has no prior history of police shootings — walked to the front door of the house to try to speak to the Baldonado family, Barnard said.
Footage from Sanchez’s lapel camera showed Baldonado exiting the front door with an airsoft gun shaped like a revolver. Baldonado smiled and pointed the gun at Sanchez repeatedly.
A woman in the house yelled and told the officers that Baldonado was holding a toy gun, but the officers did not hear, Medina said during the briefing.
“These officers have to make life-and-death decisions within seconds, and none of them indicated that they had actually heard the statement being called out,” he said. “And even if they had heard it, they would still have to make that decision on whether they’re going to risk their life on the statement they just heard.”
Sanchez yelled at Baldonado three times to drop the airsoft gun before firing three shots. Sanchez said during an investigation into the shooting that he was “afraid that the male was going to shoot or kill me.”
Sanchez was placed on administrative leave but has returned to work.
In the lapel video, Baldonado’s family is heard yelling, “Are you (expletive) stupid?” and “You think life is a joke,” in the background after he had been shot.
“When I saw the video, it really upset me,” Medina said. “Number one, (because of) some of the statements made towards the individual, which is why we’ve asked Adult Protective Services to get involved.”
Detectives interviewed Baldonado but said that due to his mental health diagnosis, they were unable to complete the interview.
It was at least the third time Baldonado has gotten into a confrontation with authorities after calling 911. In two previous cases, he called 911 to threaten suicide, and in another, erroneously reported being shot in the head.
In at least one of those prior cases, Baldonado was found incompetent to stand trial, according to court records.
