APD officer charged after allegedly injuring woman in off-duty crash

An Albuquerque police officer now faces criminal charges after investigators said he dragged a woman from her car, slammed her against it and injured her during the aftermath of an off-duty crash in northwest Albuquerque. The indictment against Shawn Ginn places a sitting APD officer under the same criminal scrutiny that any civilian would face after a violent roadside encounter, while also raising fresh questions about how force was used before the facts were known.

The crash happened March 28 near Paseo del Norte NW and Universe Boulevard. Investigators say Ginn was riding in a personal vehicle and was not in uniform when he approached the other driver. According to the indictment, Ginn forcibly removed the woman from her car, pulled her arm behind her back and left her with bruising to her face and other injuries.

Prosecutors charged Ginn with false imprisonment, aggravated battery, two counts of battery and failure to give information and render aid. Witnesses and passing motorists reportedly recorded parts of the confrontation on video, giving investigators additional evidence as they built the case. Ginn allegedly told witnesses he believed the woman was intoxicated, but investigators later determined she was not impaired.

The charges carry more than a traffic-stop dispute or a road-rage complaint. They speak to the limits of police authority in public and to the danger of turning suspicion into force without first establishing the facts. For Bernalillo County residents, the case lands in a city where APD’s credibility has already been battered by the department’s DWI dismissal and corruption scandal, a saga that put officers on leave and pushed internal investigations into the center of public debate.

APD Chief Cecily Barker now oversees a department that says it publishes monthly reports, internal affairs data and annual use-of-force reviews, along with mental health response advisory reports. The City of Albuquerque also maintains a phone directory for APD units including Internal Affairs, Hit and Run and Traffic Violations, the kind of channels that can become relevant when an officer is accused of misconduct off duty and out of uniform.

Court information for Bernalillo County and New Mexico is available through the state judiciary system, but the records reviewed here did not show a hearing date or bond amount. KRQE reported the same charges and described Ginn as a passenger near Paseo del Norte and Universe. As the case moves forward, it will test not only one officer’s conduct but also the department’s ability to answer, with documentation and discipline, when one of its own is accused of crossing the line.