Albuquerque police search for truck that hit 2 homeless people

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Two people are recovering in the hospital after getting seriously hurt in a car crash – and they weren’t in the car, or driving at all. 

Adrian McKeller says he saw the crash happen on First Street and I-40. He says his two friends – who are also homeless – were sitting next to him Monday morning when a truck came speeding down First Street. 

“When the truck came through here, and it just drove up on the sidewalk. And, I mean, it really looked like that they were intending to run over, not just somebody, but those people,” said McKeller. 

Albuquerque police say a white Dodge Ram pickup was traveling northbound on First Street when it drove onto a curb and hit a pedestrian. Then, the vehicle swerved off the sidewalk into the second pedestrian.

Police say one person has critical injuries but is stable and the other person will be OK. 

McKeller says it looked like the crash was intentional. He says the truck crashed into the fence and then took off down a side road. 

This isn’t the first time he’s seen violence against people like him. 

“I mean, it’s like, a general trend towards what we’ve been experiencing down here, you know, because we know people, it’s like, we’re on the margins, right?” McKeller said. 

Just a few weeks ago, APD arrested a group of teens for shooting BB guns at homeless people – unprovoked. 

McKeller says he doesn’t want to be living on the streets, but help from the city falls through every time. 

“We’re all down here because we don’t have any place else to go. We don’t say ‘And if I had someplace else to go, I’d go there.’ You know, that’s the end. And I know that 90% of the people down here feel the same way,” said McKeller. 

He says nothing’s going to change unless people start treating them like people too.

“How could somebody who doesn’t have anything, make somebody else that angry,” McKeller said. “I just wish that people could see a little bit more inside than each other, so they can understand the struggle that everyone’s going through.”

Police say the Dodge Ram truck fled the scene. It was last seen on Second Street passing Menaul Boulevard NW.

Officials described the truck as a white 1991-2001 model Dodge Ram 1500 with a black headache rack. They say the passenger front headlight is broken out.

Anyone with information is asked to call 242-COPS.