Horrific Lapel Cam Footage of Lieutenant Shooting His Own Detective

On April 1, 2016, Albuquerque Police Department (APD) released lapel cam video footage of Lieutenant Greg Brachle shooting one of his own undercover detectives, Jacob Grant, during a $60 drug bust in early 2015.

The footage was released the day after the City of Albuquerque paid Grant a 6.5 million dollar settlement.

The lapel cam footage shows Brachle approaching the driver’s side of a vehicle containing Grant, another undercover detective, and two suspects. Grant and the other detective were on the driver’s side (Grant in the back) and the suspects were on the passenger side.

Brachle approaches Grant’s vehicle and is heard shouting, “Put your hands where I can see them”, followed by “gun, gun” (this is apparently in response to seeing Grant’s gun, which is pointed towards the suspects).

Brachle then opens fire on Grant, shoots him twice, repositions and shoots several more times. Grant was reportedly shot eight times in total, receiving damage to most of his vital organs.

When Brachle realizes he has just shot his own detective, he screams “Jacob” repeatedly and says: “I’m sorry man, I didn’t know it was you … I thought you were a bad guy.”

Grant survived, but according to his tort claim against the City of Albuquerque has suffered “permanent and severe damages.”

The tort claim cites several reasons this tragedy simply shouldn’t have occurred, including the fact that Brachle was well aware of the customary seating arrangements for narcotics field operations – put in place specifically to avoid this type of incident – so should have known an officer would be on the rear driver’s side.

Brachle knew Grant well and knew what he would be wearing. Grant’s face was not obscured when Brachle shot him, and the suspects were black (Grant is white).

There was no justification for Brachle to open fire at all – there was no threat coming from either Grant or the suspects. According to the tort claim, “the suspects were fully and completely cooperative, compliant, non-violent and at no time offered any physical resistance.”

In addition, Brachle was an APD firearm instructor, who was responsible for teaching other officers firearm safety, so should have been well aware of basic safety protocols. Brachle was put in this position as firearm instructor despite displaying questionable judgment when firing his weapon in the past.

In 1998, Brachle was involved in the shooting of an unarmed man. The man survived and filed a lawsuit in 2000, claiming that Brachle shot him when he had his hands in the air.

It’s also likely that Brachle simply didn’t have the training to handle this sort of narcotics operation properly. Grant’s tort claim states: “It is our belief that APD does not have written operating standards or procedures in place regarding narcotic field operations, and that APD has not provided its narcotics division with essential training.”

It’s evident from the lapel cam footage and the facts laid out in the tort claim that it took several mistakes and lapses in judgment for Brachle to unload his weapon into a fellow officer. Looking at Brachle’s history and the state of APD, it seems that this sort of catastrophe was inevitable: Grant was the victim of abysmal system failures.

APD Police Chief Gorden Eden said in a statement regarding the lapel cam footage: “As hard as it is to watch and review this video, it is imperative that we learn from it. We immediately upgraded undercover officers’ training and equipment following this operation and improved supervision, communication and our procedures.”

An “upgrade” in officers training was well overdue; according to Grant’s tort claim, he does not recall “receiving any formal undercover narcotic training.”

Perhaps some of the 40 million dollars the City of Albuquerque has paid out to victims of police shootings in the last six years would have been better spent training police officers properly, rather than waiting for a tragedy of this magnitude to “upgrade” their procedures.

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