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Posted on 07/08/2003 8:18:29 AM PDT by CedarDave
Police Officer Shot Near Nob Hill, Suspect Killed
Location: Albuquerque, N.M.
Source: KRQE News 13
An Albuquerque Police officer was shot Monday evening and the suspect killed, as nearby diners in the Nob Hill business district ducked for cover and shop owners rushed to lock their doors.
APD Sgt. Carol Oleksak is in serious condition after suffering a gunshot wound to the torso and suffering a unspecified head injury.
Shortly after 7:30 p.m. the suspect walked up to Oleksak's patrol car in the Walgreens parking lot near the intersection of Girard and Central and released a barrage of bullets. According to witnesses the suspect then calmly walked up Central Avenue, firing his gun over his shoulder as other officers rushed to the scene.
Additional officers rushed to the scene and confronted the unidentified suspect in front of Kellky's Brew Pub two blocks to the east, where he was shot and killed.
APD says Oleksak was responding to a ‘violent call’ at the Walgreens parking lot. Witnesses say the suspect fired multiple shots, some hitting the ground, others striking the vehicle, and at least one hitting Oleksak.
There are reports that Oleksak had confronted the suspect after seeing him throw a rock through a car window.
Before the suspect was killed, officer urge diners on the patios of Monte Vista Fire Station and Kelly’s Brew Pub to take cover. Other businesses such as O’Neils Pub rushed to lock their front doors.
Officers shut down Central Avenue completely from Welsley to Girard.
Tuesday, July 8, 2003APD Officer Shot; Suspect Killed After Chase
By Chris Ramirez and Miguel Navrot Journal Staff Writers
A female Albuquerque police sergeant was shot and wounded Monday evening when she responded to a disturbance near Central and Girard SE.
The suspect fled the scene and was killed by police after he turned his gun on other officers, police said.
Chief Gil Gallegos said Sgt. Carol Oleksak, 49, was shot once in the head and once in the torso after responding to a call about a suspicious male.
Police did not identify the suspect, who was killed several blocks away.
Oleksak, a 15-year-veteran with the Albuquerque Police Department, was in "very serious" condition and undergoing surgery, Gallegos said during a 10:15 p.m. news conference at University of New Mexico Hospital.
"We're just hoping she will be OK," he said. "... We're hopeful she will pull through this."
Police spokesman Detective Jeff Arbogast said the suspect shot Oleksak following a confrontation with the officer, then fled on foot east on Central. Other officers gave chase and caught up with the man at Central and Wellesley SE.
Arbogast said the suspect shot at the officers, who fired back and killed him. He did not know the type of weapon used by the suspect.
"Anyone who shoots at a police officer puts themselves in a position where police's only choice is deadly force," Arbogast said. "That's what apparently happened here."
The shooting occurred just before 7:45 p.m. near the University of New Mexico at an intersection where Central, Girard and Monte Vista SE converge. Oleksak was shot in a parking lot shared by a Walgreens, a Hollywood Video shop and Mannie's Family Restaurant.
Both shooting scenes were cordoned off with police tape so investigators could comb the area for clues.
Investigators are questioning about 100 witnesses, Arbogast said. The area on Central between Girard and Wellesley was expected to be closed to traffic until this morning.
Christine Payne and her mother, Frances Padilla, said they were in the parking lot on their way to Walgreens, when they heard shots.
Both women dropped to the ground for cover. Payne said she heard a man arguing with the officer.
More shots rang out, she said.
Payne said she looked up and saw the officer bleeding and the gunman heading east on Central, carrying a backpack.
"They were arguing, then all of a sudden there were shots, about eight of them. I've never experienced anything like that," Payne said. "I'm still shaking."
Paul Thompson, 23, a student at the Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute, said he was inside the video store when he heard "six quick shots."
Arbogast would not say how many shots had been fired.
Oleksak, a longtime code enforcement officer with APD, was taken to UNM Hospital where she was admitted into emergency surgery. The officer's mother was at the hospital, Gallegos said.
Gallegos said Oleksak was promoted to sergeant about a year ago. She was assigned to the city's southeast section and supervised about a dozen other officers. She also had worked with department's horse patrol.
A visibly upset Mayor Martin Chávez joined Gallegos at the hospital.
"We are hopeful she will pull through this," Chávez said.
Gallegos said he could recall one other time when a female officer was shot in the line of duty years ago, "but not to this extent."Copyright 2003 Albuquerque Journal
APD Sgt. Carol Oleksak (pictured, above) was the victim of the shooting. She was in very serious condition Tuesday at an Albuquerque hospital. She's one tough Cop not to back down from deadly fire coming her way.....thus her rank of Sgt. speaks for itself.
Officer `serious'; suspect shot dead
By Iliana Limon
Tribune Reporter
Francis Padilla's 83-year-old legs trembled while she huddled with her daughter in the Walgreens parking lot, ducking from nearby gunfire.
"We ran toward the store, and I saw her," Padilla said still shaking more than an hour later. "I saw the woman officer's face covered in blood. It was horrible."
Padilla was one of at least 100 people who watched five minutes of terror grip the Nob Hill strip of Central Avenue on Monday evening.
The shooting spree critically injured 49-year-old veteran Albuquerque police Sgt. Carol Oleksak.
She was in "very serious condition" and in surgery early this morning, Police Chief Gilbert Gallegos said.
The gunfire sent officers on a foot chase down Central Avenue, where they eventually shot and killed an as-yet unidentified man suspected of wounding Oleksak, police spokesman Detective Jeff Arbogast said.
Homicide investigators did not release the man's name early this morning, because they were still trying to notify his family about the fatal shooting, Arbogast said.
With heavy hearts, more than 50 detectives and officers from the police and Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department carefully analyzed the four-block crime scene and searched for evidence.
"We're all praying she'll pull through and won't suffer any serious, long-term damage," police union President Jeff Remington said at the scene.
"Anytime an officer is shot, it's a real blow. But because she was so dedicated and committed to the people she worked with, this is very hard to handle."
Oleksak's mother and sister huddled at University of New Mexico Hospital with Police Department leaders, praying she would recover, Gallegos said.
"They are relying on their faith and their religion to comfort them in this difficult time," Gallegos said at the hospital shortly before midnight, appearing worn by the emotional evening. "We're all pulling for her. She's always been a tough officer, but this is by far her biggest test."
Events began when Oleksak fielded a routine call shortly before 7:30 p.m. about a suspicious, threatening man in the Walgreens parking lot on Central Avenue and Girard Boulevard Southeast, Arbogast said.
Witnesses, including Padilla and her daughter, heard shouting shortly after Oleksak's cruiser pulled into the parking lot adjacent to Mannie's Family Restaurant.
"The yelling wasn't that big a deal, but then I heard at least six bullets that sounded quick and loud," Padilla said.
Arbogast could not confirm how many times Oleksak was hit, but did say at least one bullet struck her in the head or face.
He also could not confirm witness reports that Oleksak and the unidentified male suspect wrestled over her gun.
Padilla and neighboring business owners watched the suspect shout at Oleksak while she lay on the ground wounded next to her police cruiser.
"Then he grabbed his backpack off the ground and did the strangest thing," business owner Louie Torres said. "He walked casually down the street. He didn't run; he walked. It was like he didn't even care."
Torres, the 41-year-old owner of Louie's Rock-N-Reels on Central Avenue Northeast near Richmond Drive, didn't think the man walking away from the scene was a suspect until officers began running after him.
"He was about a block away from the scene walking east on Central when I heard him shout, `That'll teach you, bitch,'" Torres said. "Then he pointed the gun over his left shoulder and fired a shot without even looking back."
Angered by what he saw, Torres ran back into his store and grabbed the only weapon he thought might distract the suspect until police could catch up with him: three videotapes.
"They were the heaviest thing I could find that I thought would slow him down, so I threw them across the street," Torres said. "It was stupid because he could have shot me, but I was so mad that he did this. I've worked here for eight years, and no one has ever attacked my community like this. It just wasn't right."
None of the videotapes hit the suspect, but one landed right in front of him. They did little to slow the gun-wielding man, who, Torres said, continued walking defiantly down the street.
The suspect, whom witnesses described as a relatively clean-cut man in his mid-20s, continued east on Central Avenue and crossed Richmond Drive.
Torres said the man then fired two more shots blindly over his shoulder.
Mikyta Daugherty, a 26-year-old UNM psychology instructor, didn't notice the suspect walk past the window she was sitting by inside a Korean barbecue restaurant near Wellesley Drive.
But she couldn't miss the three officers trailing him.
"One of them had this huge shotgun," she said, hours later while waiting to get her car out from behind crime scene tape. "And we watched him fire at least three shots at the guy."
Daugherty said the officer appeared to be very upset after fatally wounding the suspect.
The suspect fell face down on the street in front of Kelly's Brew Pub, which had a patio filled with customers-turned-witnesses at the corner of Central Avenue and Wellesley Drive Southeast.
"It was crazy," Daugherty said. "I never thought in a million years something would happen like this, someone would get gunned down in the middle of the street."
In an operating room about five blocks away, doctors worked on the wounded police sergeant, hoping to keep the night's events from becoming a double homicide.
UNM Hospital declined to release further information on Oleksak's condition this morning.
SGT. CAROL OLEKSAK
Age: 49
Joined Police Department: 1989
Promoted to sergeant: 2002
Family: Two sisters - one active, one retired - in law enforcement
Spare-time pursuits: Keeping horses and running a small farm
Character: "She was the best type of leader, because she was a supervisor who believed she could get out there and make a difference." - Jeff Remington, police union president.
Albuquerque has a very serious crime problem. One of the main reasons I left.
Stay Safe !
Just like in the military, the wounding or death of a female officer or servicewoman in the line of duty hits harder because, irrespective of today's PC crap, the job traditionally was for men and we came to expect occasional occurrence of such things. Therefore, harm to a woman still shocks us. Unfortunately, as the years pass, such injuries will continue to disturb us, but not to the extent they do to for today's older generation who grew up when these jobs were almost exclusively male.
Yeah, NM, I love the place-best weather on the planet, but the liberals are loose and it is turning into a jungle.
But, if I had to go back--I could do Tijeras in a heartbeat. Beats sitting here in Phoenix waiting for the 118 degrees we may hit on Thursday. Criminy.
My wife, who's lived in NM since '72 (I'm more recent), was burgularized twice in town. We like our place in the East Mountains, good neighbors, some homeschoolers, and no robberies on our street for about 15 years. If we can only stop worrying about forest fires and wells going dry!
At 35th & the Dan Ryan, there was always a cop parked there, watching. One day he wasn't there, and my dad made the mistake of stopping at the stop light (in broad daylight). Within seconds, someone ran out and opened his trailer, and took some cases of meat.
It was apparently an unwritten rule that you were supposed to run the light if there was no cop there.
July 8, 2003
Sergeant in Critical Condition
By Chris Vogel, Journal Staff Writer
An Albuquerque police sergeant who was shot Monday night while responding to a disturbance near Central and Girard SE was in critical condition this morning at University of New Mexico Hospital, police spokesman Jeff Arbogast said.
Sgt. Carol Oleksak, 49, was shot once in the head and once in the torso by a man whose name police were not releasing as of Tuesday afternoon.
The suspect, who fled the scene after firing at Oleksak, was shot and killed by police several blocks east on Central SE from where Oleksak was wounded. The suspect shot at the officers before they fired back, killing the man, Arbogast has said.
He said Tuesday morning that police would not release any more information until later in the afternoon.
Bernice Trujillo, the postmaster in San Ysidro, near where Olelsak had a home, said the Oleksak is always on the go. "She's a working person," Trujillo said, "and if she's not at work, she's working with her horses, cows, chickens or llamas. She's a real farm girl and a nice person. She's always doing something."
Trujillo said Oleksak's sister is caring for the animals while Oleksak is in the hospital. She said Oleksak was the type of person who would take time out of her day to help someone.
"Last summer," she said, "there was a homeless woman wandering the streets in front of the post office and I got scared because she told me to get away from her. Then Carol walked in, called the police, and stayed with me until they came and escorted the woman away. Carol didn't have to stay with me, but she is a very kind, helpful, and open-hearted person, and everyone in the community is willing to help her."
Oleksak is a longtime code enforcement officer who was promoted to sergeant a year ago. She was most recently assigned to the Southeast area.
That is a Picture of her...........
Wounded Officer Still In Critical Condition
Mental Illness Plagued Police Shooter
Police Identify Shooter
Thursday, July 10, 2003Family 'Cautiously Optimistic' for Injured Officer, Journal Staff Report
Albuquerque Police Sgt. Carol Oleksak remained in critical condition Wednesday at University of New Mexico Hospital. However, APD spokesman Jeff Arbogast said family and friends of Oleksak were "cautiously optimistic" about her condition.
"We have heard that she asked about her animals in San Ysidro," he said. "Not much else has changed regarding her condition from Tuesday."
Police are asking residents to send gifts and flowers for Oleksak to the substation she worked out of instead of to the hospital. The hospital has been deluged with deliveries of flowers and get-well cards for Oleksak, 49, who was shot Monday while trying to apprehend a suspect.
Police Chief Gil Gallegos said officers would accept gifts for Oleksak at the Southeast Substation, 800 Louisiana SE.
There have been more than a few cases where the bad guy over powered a female officer and shot her with their own weapon.
Thursday, July 10, 2003Cop Shooter Freed Time and Again
By Chris Vogel and Barbara Chavez Journal Staff Writers
The reality is, Duc Mihn Pham was dangerous.
The question is, could anyone have seen it coming?
The homeless schizophrenic who shot and seriously wounded Albuquerque police Sgt. Carol Oleksak on Monday had been jailed numerous times.
He had been released time and again after being ruled incompetent to stand trial but not a danger to the public.
George Montoya, the head of a local community center, had many encounters with Pham and thought it was clear he should not be on the streets.
"It's my personal opinion that he ... should have been committed to a psychiatric hospital," he said.
Judge James Blackmer, who signed two orders releasing Pham, said Wednesday that forensic evaluations and psychologists' testimony showed Pham to be incompetent.
But to establish someone as a danger, state statute requires the prosecution to prove, either through testimony or by providing proof of earlier violent crime convictions, that the person does "present a serious threat of inflicting great bodily harm on another."
Blackmer said there was no such proof.
"I wish we judges could predict the future for any defendant," he said, "but we have to act on the evidence presented before us at the time."
Blackmer said that when a defendant is ruled both incompetent and not a danger, a judge has to dismiss the case.
"There's a gap in the system when someone is living on the streets and they may not be competent and they're not a danger to themselves or others," he said. "You can't force medication on someone unless they're a danger."
Assistant District Attorney Kathy Wright said forensic evaluations showed that Pham suffered from schizophrenia, depression and organic brain damage due to a car accident in Vietnam when he was 5.
Blackmer said that, if a defendant in criminal court is ruled incompetent and not a danger, the prosecution can seek to commit them civilly.
An August 2001 competency evaluation on Pham, performed after he was charged with criminal damage to property, mentions three involuntary commitment petitions. However, Blackmer said those petitions are not public record.
Attack not a surprise
For years, Pham lived on Albuquerque's streets, moving from one shelter to another, getting odd jobs.
Montoya is the director of the Trumbull neighborhood area East Central Multi-Service Center, a family and community services facility run by the city of Albuquerque, where he has worked 18 years.
"I wouldn't single (Pham) out as any more or less dangerous than some of the other people that come in here at times," he said. "But when I read about the shooting with the police officer, it did not surprise me that he would take a gun and act out violently, because I don't think he had the ability to care about his actions."
Pham shot Oleksak on East Central after he was able to disarm her by knocking her to the ground and taking her weapon, Chief Gil Gallegos has said. Pham then fled east on Central, wildly firing shots over his shoulder, until police shot and killed him in front of Kelly's Brew Pub minutes later.
Oleksak was in critical condition at University of New Mexico Hospital on Wednesday afternoon, police spokesman Jeff Arbogast said.
Pham moved to America from Vietnam around 1990 or 1991, said Bobbie Nobles, who knew Pham off and on since his arrival to the U.S. He said Pham spoke some broken English and could read and write. For his first few years in the country, Pham tried to gain steady employment as a janitor and dish washer, Nobles said.
"Pham's father was American," he said, "and (Pham) came over as a single man, which shows he possibly had spent all his life as an orphan or living on the streets. He would have been ostracized in Vietnam as the son of an American (in Vietnam), and I think the lack of family guidance tended to lead him the wrong way."
After a couple of years in Albuquerque, Pham moved to Arkansas, where he married a woman and had a son, Nobles said. Pham returned to Albuquerque in December 1994, he said.
Trouble begins
"He came to me, homeless, on a snowy day," Nobles said. "He declined the offer of a hotel room ..., but then he took money for a meal. I heard that he then broke into a Buddhist temple and was arrested."
Pham was indicted on Jan. 24, 1995, for breaking and entering the temple. He then spent almost seven months in the city-county jail, a jail official said.
In June 1997, Bernalillo County District Judge Frank Allen Jr. dismissed the breaking and entering case, finding Pham mentally incompetent and not dangerous.
Laura Hanish, a social worker for the Public Defender's Office, was assigned to find Pham housing and mental health help.
Hanish did not return phone calls Wednesday.
That was the first of five times district judges deemed Pham incompetent to stand trial yet not a serious danger to others. Those rulings were based on state-ordered psychiatric evaluations.
Nobles said he does not believe Pham received the appropriate medical attention.
"Because of his ethnic and cultural background," he said, "I don't think the treatment he received was adequate. Pham told me he was essentially just given drugs to calm him down."
During the mid-1990s, Nobles said, Pham became "progressively worse." He said he tried to get Pham jobs and a place to live, but Pham would never stay in one place or job for long.
"He did not like a lack of freedom," he said. "He could not stand a routine."
Within the last three years, Montoya said, Pham was in and out of his community services center.
"I couldn't count the number of times Duc Pham was causing incidents or just hanging around this place," said Montoya.
"He would sleep and lurk behind trash bins behind the building and scare the nurses," said Montoya. "We never officially banned him because we are a public facility that wants to try to help people. We would try to get him to the shelters."
Montoya said he was told that Pham was taking medications for his mental health problems but did not know what types of prescriptions he received.
"I just know that when he was on his medication, we didn't see him, and when he was off, he was here," Montoya said. "There was no way for anyone to convince him to continue his medications."
Nobles said he last saw Pham around the middle of April at a community center on East Central.
"He asked me for some money and I gave him $10 or $20," he said. "He had totally deteriorated. I thought he was completely gone."
Nobles called Pham's story a sad one, saying Pham was not given the help he perhaps needed.
"In a certain way," he said, "maybe his problems are over now."
No danger seen
1968: Duc Mihn Pham was born on Dec. 31, 1968, in Saigon, the son of a U.S. soldier and a Vietnamese woman.
1972: Pham was hit by a car and hospitalized for three months, much of that time in a coma. Doctors who evaluated him in 1995 believe the accident resulted in brain damage that could cause mental disabilities.
1989-1991:It's unclear exactly when Pham immigrated to the United States. According to a personal acquaintance, Pham may have arrived in Albuquerque as early as 1989.
1993: Pham's first run-in with Albuquerque police. Pham is stopped for traffic violations and charged with DWI, reckless driving, failure to use safety belts and failure to display registration. Court documents do not indicate how the charges were resolved.
1995: Pham is indicted Jan. 24 on charges of breaking and entering and criminal trespass. He is held at the city-county jail for about seven months, according to District Court records. Judge Frank Allen Jr. dismisses the case against Pham in 1997, ruling Pham is not competent to stand trial based on a mental evaluation.
1996: On Feb. 2, state District Judge Wilbert C. Smith II dismisses forgery and conspiracy charges against Pham and rules him not competent to stand trial. Smith does not dispute the state-ordered evaluation that Pham is not dangerous.
1996: On May 2, Pham is indicted on charges of burglary, conspiracy and receiving stolen property. Pham is ruled not competent to stand trial by state District Judge Ross Sanchez and charges are dismissed. Again, an evaluation says Pham poses no danger to society.
1996: On May 17, Pham is indicted on charges of burglary, tampering with evidence, two counts of conspiracy and two counts of larceny. Judge Smith dismisses case after ruling that Pham is not competent to stand trial and that he is not dangerous. Pham is ordered to return to a group home and urged to seek mental health counseling.
1999: Pham is found guilty of drinking in public. Court documents do not indicate what sentence Pham received.
1999: On June 7, Pham is indicted on shoplifting and possession of drug paraphernalia charges. State District Judge James Blackmer dismisses charges and determines Pham is not competent to stand trial based on state evaluation. It also says he is not dangerous.
2001: From Jan. 17 through Sept. 18, Pham is arrested three times. The most serious charge is assault on a police officer and he spends 14 days in the city-county jail. Blackmer again dismisses charges based on a mental evaluation, ruling that Pham is not competent to stand trial and not dangerous.
2003: Pham is arrested May 22 on charges of refusing to obey an officer, disorderly conduct and drinking in public. After spending a little more than a month in the city-county jail, the district attorney requests charges be dismissed.
Sources: District Court records, Metropolitan Court records, City-County Jail officials, Bobbie Nobles of New Mexico Mutual Assistance Association.
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