Man dies in police custody after domestic violence response in southeast Albuquerque

A domestic-violence call on Tennessee Street near Bell Avenue ended with a man dead in police custody after Albuquerque officers said he was unconscious and breathing when they arrived, then stopped breathing. Officers were called around 1 a.m. Sunday, April 12, 2026, to an apartment in the 400 block of Tennessee St. SE, south of Central.

The Albuquerque Police Department said officers tried to revive the man but were unsuccessful and he died at the scene. APD did not immediately release his identity. Because the man died while in police custody, the case was turned over to the Multi-Agency Task Force for investigation.

That review matters because the city’s policy gives the task force responsibility for criminal investigations of officer-involved shootings, in-custody deaths and criminal allegations related to use of force. In a case like this, the public record will hinge on a careful accounting of what officers saw when they arrived, what medical aid was provided, and how the man’s condition changed in those first critical minutes.

The call also lands in a city that has treated domestic violence as a major public-safety and public-health threat. City materials describe domestic violence as an alarming crime and a public health problem in Albuquerque. They say as many as 20% of homicides in 2021 were domestic-violence related, and that domestic-violence incidents increased by 8% during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a rise in strangulation cases.

Albuquerque has built out response systems around that danger, including the Domestic Abuse Response Team, the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Commission and the Albuquerque Family Advocacy Center. Those efforts underscore why a death during a domestic-violence call is likely to draw close scrutiny well beyond one apartment in southeast Albuquerque.

For Sandoval County commuters who cross into Albuquerque for work, court dates, medical visits or family obligations, the case reaches beyond city limits. It tests whether APD’s response, the medical aid given at the scene and the independent investigation that follows can meet the standards people expect when a domestic call ends in a death.