Former Los Lunas police officer who fired a gun indoors hired at APS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A new hire at Albuquerque Public Schools is raising some concerns for parents. One of their new school police officers is currently being investigated at his previous job for firing his gun inside his office.

KOB 4 got a copy of the surveillance video from the Los Lunas Police Department of the day this officer fired his gun.

While cameras don’t capture the gun going off, we do see and hear the aftermath of multiple other officers coming to investigate the gunshot.

Sgt. Buster Whitley comes out of his office and admits he pulled the trigger, thinking his gun was empty. Luckily, no one was hurt, but a Los Lunas Police Department spokesperson confirmed there were two other people in the office with him when the shot was fired.

Two weeks later, Whitley resigned from LLPD. The department spokesperson confirmed there is still an Internal Affairs investigation underway.

While they can’t give details of that investigation, they did share a diagram showing Whitley was standing just inside the office, facing an empty wall when he fired his gun.

Just two minutes before the shot was fired, Whitley can be seen practicing, pacing up and down the halls of LLPD with his loaded gun pointed out in front of him.

But the story doesn’t end in Los Lunas. Two weeks after he resigned, Whitley was hired by APS as a police officer.

An APS spokesperson confirmed all APS officers are armed.

KOB 4 asked APS what school Whitley will be working at so we can alert parents. We were told we have to file an Inspection of Public Records Act request to get that information. A week later, we are still waiting for that request to be fulfilled.