ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Albuquerque Police tried pulling over a man riding a bike they thought was wanted, but it was the wrong man. That man did however get in trouble for how he reacted.
An officer saw Xavier Benitez near Central and Atrisco in January and asked him to stop. Even though Benitez was not the man police were looking for, he fled from the officer, according to court documents. “Hey sir, just pull over, alright? You’re going to get hurt. I’m going to use force to stop you if you don’t stop,” the officer is heard saying on body camera video.
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Benitez is seen on the officer’s body camera video cutting in front of traffic while the officer chases him. The officer lost sight of Benitez, but Albuquerque Fire Rescue came to help by giving the officer a ride down the road where Benitez was.
Benitez managed to get away again, and more officers joined the pursuit and helped detain Benitez. The officers explained why they stopped him.
Officer: “We thought that you had a warrant, man. If you would have just stopped and said, ‘Hey, I’m Xavier; I have no warrants, sir,’ we would have said…”
Benitez: “I told that to the guy.”
Officer: “No.”
Benitez: “And then he told me that I didn’t have any one.”
Officer: “Well, you don’t; now you do.”
According to court records, Benitez was already on probation when he ran from police for a battery against a police officer case in 2022. He took a plea deal in this latest case and agreed to the court’s diversion program.
