By Jeremy Hunt
The Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An 18-year-old homicide suspect is in jail after a gunfight early Thursday with police who pulled him over on a routine traffic stop.
Timothy Walker was driving erratically on Central near Louisiana when he was stopped at about 3:30 a.m., according to the criminal complaint.
Officers approached Walker and had gone back to their vehicle to check records when Walker got out of the 1999 Cadillac he was driving, with his back toward police, the complaint says.
The officers told him to get back in his car, and he responded by “turning around and brandishing a gun and firing at the officers,” police spokesman John Walsh said.
Police shot back at Walker, and “while the shooting was going down, the passenger in the vehicle ... jumps into the driver’s seat and sped off,” Walsh said.
The passenger is described only as a darkskinned female, and there may have been another passenger, Walsh said. The vehicle was found abandoned nearby, and police were waiting for a search warrant to check it out, he said.
It was unknown Thursday how many shots were fired by police or Walker, who ran across Central toward Caravan East, a country-music nightclub.
Walker “listened to the voice in his head telling him to run,” he later told police, according to the complaint.
Police found Walker holed up in a Dumpster behind Caravan East, Walsh said.
Within an hour of the traffic stop, the SWAT team got him out of the Dumpster.
He had three wounds believed to be from the gunfight with the officers, who are now on standard, threeday paid administrative leave, Walsh said.
Walker was released from the hospital Thursday afternoon and booked into Metropolitan Detention Center.
Walker disputed the officers’ account, telling police later that he ran from the vehicle and only fired one warning shot over his shoulder at the officers behind him because they were chasing him, according to the complaint.
He’s been charged with two counts of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer and evading police, according to court records.
Walsh said Walker will be charged with more felonies as the investigation unfolds.
He has outstanding warrants for a 2006 incident in which he was charged with murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with great bodily harm, tampering with evidence and conspiracy, according to court records.
Walsh also said Walker is a registered sex offender, although the New Mexico Sex Offender Registry Web site does not list him as one.
Copyright 2008 The Albuquerque Journal