Cellphone video shows guard attacking man
Posted at: 12/05/2012 5:51 PM
By: Jill Galus, KOB Eyewitness News 4
A cell phone video has surfaced that shows a city security guard apparently attacking a man at the Alvarado Transportation Center in downtown Albuquerque.
The video, posted Tuesday on a website called Albuquerque Police Complaints, has triggered a city investigation into a city security officer named Andy Fitzgerald.
The website claimed the video was shot last August, when Fitzgerald, who is not an Albuquerque Police Department officer, was working outside the Alvarado Transportation Center. The video was shot on a cell phone by a man who claims he started recording when Fitzgerald went to arrest a homeless man.
The website claimed that after Fitzgerald noticed the man taping him, he choked and pepper sprayed the man.
Nowhere in the city's posted job description for security guard does it say they have the authority to arrest people. In fact, they are only to determine if a crime has been committed, whether further action is warranted, document incidents and prepare reports.
Fitzgerald has been a city security guard for the past three and a half years, but a city spokesman told KOB Eyewitness News 4 he's been reassigned to a position that does not have him working with the public, at least until a hearing over the matter is held.
City officials did not say specify when the hearing will take place but did say that Fitzgerald could lose his job.
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