ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Albuquerque police are still piecing together what led an officer to kill a handcuffed man in custody last week. 

Police have identified that man as Matthew Garcia. Court records show an extensive criminal history. 

Police say they took Garcia into custody at the Tewa Lodge Friday for what they say was a drug clean-up operation. 

But police say Garcia was combative, and they admit they placed him in a police vehicle without fully patting him down.

“As they handcuffed the individual, they begin to search him and the individual becomes very combative. We’ve asked our officers to de-escalate situations, we asked them to avoid the use of force. So they put this person in the car as quickly as they could to try to alleviate any further issues,” said APD Chief Harold Medina. 

They say at no point did Garcia tell officers he was armed. Police also say about 45 minutes later, an officer noticed Garcia was trying to reach for a gun he had on his waist.

Police describe what happened next as a “wrestling match” before Garcia was shot.

Medina also addressed the arrests of protesters who showed up on Friday night. He says they were trying to get into the crime scene, forcing detectives to leave to help officers with crowd control.

Police arrested Shawn Kenny and Emery Schmidt. Officers were reportedly trying to detain Kenny when Schmidt punched one of them. 

Medina revealed Schmidt has a history of issues with officers. 

“Do not hit my officers. If you hit my officers, I expect them to arrest you, take you to jail, and we will make sure we get every evidence we can to the district attorney’s office so you get prosecuted,” said Medina. “That individual was also arrested earlier this year during another protest at the University of New Mexico. I hope the courts and the DA’s office take a look at this individual and his conditions of release, they recognize these individuals are the ones who give protesters a bad name.” 

Medina was referring to when protesters took over the UNM Student Union Building in April over the war in Gaza.

Back to this past week, protesters told KOB 4 the situation escalated when APD went after them.

Video shows one protester getting arrested in this cell phone video. Protesters claim police went on their side of the yellow line.

“We are demanding that those charges be dropped because nobody assaulted a police officer. On the other side of that, we were all brutalized. We have injuries across our bodies,” said Selinda Guerrero, a protester. 

Court records show Kenney and Schmidt have since been released from jail.