Man shot with own gun at Kirtland AFB
Posted at: 10/25/2012 6:18 PM
By: Jill Galus, KOB Eyewitness News 4
A Kirtland airman on patrol was shot with his own gun, Albuquerque police said, and investigators spent Thursday working to unravel exactly what happened.
"It's very scary, it's disconcerting to think that it happens in this neighborhood," Sandy Haynes, who has lived in a usually quiet neighborhood near the Maxwell housing area for the past decade, said.
But Wednesday night was different, she said.
"It was very noisy last night," Haynes said.
Haynes told KOB Eyewitness News 4 she was shocked to hear police report an airman had been shot around 1 a.m. Thursday morning.
"Wow, this doesn't happen here," Haynes said. "That's just what we're all thinking right now, this doesn't happen here."
The security forces member was doing random patrols on the north end of the the housing area when police said he was shot in the stomach with his own gun.
This happened just seconds after he reported four people had caught his attention but when asked, told officers he did not need any backup.
"We're looking at that too, how they of course obtained his weapon," Officer Robert Gibbs, of the Albuquerque Police Department, said. "We don't know if some sort of struggle or some sort of physical altercation occurred for them to even grab his weapon, and we don't know what attracted this officer's attention to these four individuals."
Officials at Kirtland Air Force Base would not comment on the incident.
The Albuquerque Police Department is handling the investigation because the Maxwell Housing Area is considered their jurisdiction, officials said.
While Kirtland maintains security patrols, Maxwell is considered federal government property.
As of Thursday, the officer was still hospitalized but expected to be okay.
"I don't know how I feel about it, I still feel safe living in the area but like I said, it's disconcerting knowing it did happen and somebody was shot," Haynes said.
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