Lapel video shows Las Cruces police arresting Zachary Babitz

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – New video shows the moment police found a man accused of a statewide crime spree, including murder, in a Las Cruces dumpster.

Zachary Babitz was arrested following a carjacking and robbery in Las Cruces. 

It was around 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 10 when officers were called about a back-to-back robbery and carjacking in Las Cruces. The suspects, a man and a woman. 

Within minutes of police swarming the area, officers found the stolen car abandoned. 

Police sent a drone in the air, fanned out on foot, and kept an eye on a nearby canal while searching the surrounding area. 

Eventually, Babitz was found inside a dumpster. He claimed to be homeless, and told police another man threw a gun into the dumpster where he was found. 

“He threw something in their bro. It looked like a broken BB gun. I didn’t touch it, man.”

The man Babitz described matched his own description pretty well. 

“I swear to your man! That dude was wearing a black shirt, he was all tatted back. I know I am too, but he was all tatted back.” 

But police didn’t buy his story. Officers fanned out and searched for the woman, even checking another nearby dumpster. She was never found. 

Officers released a surveillance photo of her. They believe she ditched the braid as she ran. 

“Here’s the ponytail, it’s like braided, like someone either cut it or it was just as attachment.” 

Babitz faces charges of robbery and carjacking in Las Cruces, and bank robbery charges in Albuquerque. Including murder and robbery charges in Santa Fe, and federal charges for using a gun during a carjacking.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted.