ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The Albuquerque Police Department held a news conference Friday to release new details and video of a recent officer-involved shooting that left a suspect dead.
Police say officers at a Flying J truck stop near Central and 98th ran the plate of a vehicle that came back as stolen. When officers attempted to make a traffic stop, the vehicle fled into an El Mezquite parking lot. APD says a man and a woman exited the vehicle, got into a truck that was in the parking lot and fled again. Officers deployed stop sticks successfully and the pair ended up driving the car off the road and fled on foot into to a nearby drainage tunnel.
Police say officers used drones to get a visual on the suspects and saw the man, identified as 42-year-old Dale Meador, was armed with a gun. Law enforcement spent about an hour negotiating and attempting to get the suspects to come out of the tunnel and voluntarily surrender. Officials say during the incident Meador put the gun to the woman’s stomach and forced her into the vehicle. APD says commands were given to Meador to drop the gun, but he was not complying with officers commands. Some officers on scene fired less-lethal weapons and one officer on scene fired his rife, which hit and killed Meadow. Officers found Meador had in his possession a replica bb gun, and multiple replica bb guns were found inside the vehicle. Police say multiple rounds of live ammunition were also found inside the vehicle. Both the Meador and the female had warrants out for their arrest. The incident is still under investigation.