Illustration by Franco Zacha for Searchlight New Mexico
This story contains descriptions and images of physical abuse and injuries to minors.
Just before lunchtime on Oct. 24 of this year, an employee of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department heard what sounded like an argument between two teenage boys coming from inside a room in the agency’s Albuquerque office building, where the boys had been living. As the argument appeared to escalate into a fight, the employee called for a private security guard to intervene.
This article was
by Searchlight New Mexico, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that seeks to empower New Mexicans to demand honest and effective public policy. It is republished here with permission.
According to a police report and interviews with eyewitnesses, the guard walked into the room and picked one of the boys up, his feet dangling off the floor, and then threw him across the room. While the guard held the other boy on the ground, the first boy tried to grab his legs; the guard picked up that boy and threw him once, then twice, then at least one more time, at one point hitting the boy’s head against a metal door frame.