ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – While officers were on scene for an accident on I-40, they heard gunshots ring out from a passing vehicle. Police were soon surprised to learn that inside that car was a well-known face.
It was a messy crash on the westbound I-40 near University Blvd. on July 17, with numerous officers responding to the scene as traffic crawled by. Then, a startling moment when someone in a passing vehicle started shooting out the window. Officers followed the Jeep Gladiator on I-40, eventually pulling it over at an intersection on Sixth St. and the frontage road.
After officers got the passenger in handcuffs and in a police unit, to their surprise, they recognized the man they just arrested. “This is Diego Sanchez. As in UFC fighter Diego Sanchez. I thought I recognized him,” said one Albuquerque Police Officer on scene.
Sanchez admitted he had a gun in the car but claimed he did not shoot it. However, Sanchez’s friend and the driver of the Jeep, Derrick Montoya, told officers he was giving Sanchez a ride. He said Sanchez fired a gun out of the window. Montoya, who was let go and is not facing any charges, told KRQE News 13 in an interview that Sanchez had been going through a rough patch.
“I don’t know what he was thinking when he did it. He just rolled down the window and hit off some shots and said, ‘I love you Albuquerque. I love you guys,’” Montoya said on July 18. “I was like, come on, Diego.”
Officers found a gun and bullets in the vehicle. Sanchez was booked and faces shooting from a vehicle and negligent use of a deadly weapon charges.
Prosecutors filed a motion to keep Sanchez behind bars until trial, but that was denied, and he has since been released.
