By Charles D. Brunt
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE — A 31-year-old Kirtland Air Force Base security officer is recovering in a local hospital after confronting four men - one of whom shot him using the officer’s own gun - in a base housing area early Thursday morning.
The unidentified technical sergeant with the Kirtland’s 377th Security Forces Group suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen, city police spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Albuquerque police are investigating the shooting because the area where the shooting occurred is managed by a private contractor.
Despite a thorough search of the area, police had no suspects in custody late Thursday.
The shooting occurred about 12:50 a.m. in the Maxwell Housing Area near Gibson and Washington SE.
The officer told investigators he was patrolling the 400 block of Mercury Circle when he spotted four men, three dressed in black and one wearing a red-hooded sweat shirt, and approached them to find out what they were doing there.
An altercation ensued, and one of the men managed to grab the officer’s gun and shoot him with it, Gibbs said. The suspects then took off running.
The officer was hit in the lower abdomen just below his bullet-proof vest, but the bullet went straight through. Gibbs said he was in stable condition at University of New Mexico Hospital.
The Maxwell Housing Area, like all family housing units at Kirtland, was privatized several years ago and is leased by a private contractor, said base spokeswoman Marie Vanover.
Because Kirtland retains ownership of two facilities in the area - a childcare center and a conference center - military security personnel control access to the roughly six-square-block area and routinely patrol the centers.
The Albuquerque Police Department , however, responds to law enforcement calls in the area and is responsible for investigating crimes that occur there, Gibbs said.
Kirtland Air Force personnel inspect vehicles entering the Maxwell Gate off Gibson SE on Thursday, hours after a technical sergeant with the base’s 377th Security Forces was shot in the abdomen by unknown assailants, according to police investigators.
Copyright 2012 Albuquerque Journal