Four airmen assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico were involved in a crash that killed a woman, which police are investigating as a possible street racing incident.
- Albuquerque Police Department officials said that a vehicle containing the four airmen struck a female pedestrian crossing an Albuquerque street before crashing into an apartment building.
- “There is a possibility based on preliminary statements on scene that it MAY have been a case of two cars racing, that is still under investigation,” said Gilbert Gallegos Jr., a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department. “The four occupants of the Subaru are not in custody. Any charges towards the driver will be addressed after the complete investigation.”
- Police have not released the name of the woman who was killed because she has not been identified, so her next of kin have not been notified yet, Gallegos said in a statement.
- “It will take some time to reconstruct and I do not have a timeline,” Gallegos said. “This is an ongoing case that our motors team is investigating. After the investigation if there are any charges applicable it will be sent to the DAs office for review.”
- The four airmen involved are assigned to the 58th Special Operations Wing, said Kirtland Air Force Base spokesman Carl Grusnick, who declined to provide any other information until they are identified by Albuquerque police.
- While Grusnick said that at least three of the airmen remain hospitalized, he declined to say whether the airmen may have been street racing at the time of the deadly crash because Albuquerque police are still investigating the matter.
- Cell phone footage obtained by local news station KOB shows the car’s passengers collecting themselves in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
- An APD spokesman told KOAT-TV that “for many officers there at the scene of the crash it was the most horrific one they’d ever seen.”
UPDATE: This story was updated on March 25 with comments from Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Gilbert Gallegos Jr.