13-12 months-Previous Driver Charged with Homicide After Social Media Video of Him Hitting Bike owner: ‘Bump Him, Brah’

Scott Dwight Habermehl, 63, died on Might 29, 2024, whereas using his bike to work at Sandia Nationwide Laboratory at round 4:40 a.m., in keeping with a launch seen by USA Right this moment. He was struck by a automobile, which subsequently drove away.

The Albuquerque Police Division was initially unable to find out who had been within the automobile, which it was later decided had been stolen, regardless of a picture of the car captured from a close-by church. They initially believed the deadly incident an accident.

Then, ideas began coming in a couple of video circulating on social media that appeared to point out the crash from the vantage level of contained in the car. This ultimately helped police observe down the three boys who have been within the automobile, and filming the video.

Now, a kind of boys, the 13-year-old driver, has been charged in Habermehl’s killing and shall be held within the Juvenile Detention Heart, per Individuals.

He is going through prices of homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, leaving the scene of an accident involving nice bodily hurt or dying, and illegal possession of a handgun.

Additionally current within the video was an 11-year-old, with KOB4 reporting police apprehended him on Tuesday. He is at present within the custody of the Kids, Youth and Households Division for an analysis.

A 15-year-old within the car, and who police imagine was recording the video, is going through the identical prices, however police have but to apprehend him.

“I’m horrified by the video footage of a brazen, heartless killing involving three New Mexico juveniles—ages 11, 13, and 15—who focused an harmless bicycle owner,” stated New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in a assertion on Tuesday.

“This case is an appalling and heartbreaking reminder of the intense juvenile crime disaster we face in New Mexico––and our lack of instruments to correctly deal with it,” she continued. “Such mindless violence may very well be prevented if we had correct legal guidelines in place to detain repeat juvenile offenders and supply applicable interventions.”

It wasn’t till February 2025, 9 months after the deadly incident, that police obtained their first nameless tip a couple of video circulating on social media taken contained in the car. The tipster supplied police with the Instagram deal with and title of the account holder, per USA Right this moment.

The video as additionally reported by a pupil to a center faculty principal with the Albuquerque Public Colleges, who additionally concerned the police.

Based on police, that account had already been flagged in a separate investigation, and so they’d additionally already seized the telephones of the 13-year-old and 11-year-old suspects. Then, they secured a warrant to go looking these units.

Therein, police reported discovering a number of clips displaying all three suspects, in addition to video of the crash itself. Based mostly on the proof, police imagine the 13-year-old was the driving force, the 11-year-old was within the passenger seat, and the 15-year-old within the again seat.

The video that was launched on-line, and might be considered right here on the Albuquerque Journal (viewer discretion suggested) captures the second they boys swerved right into a devoted bike lane and struck Habermhel, per the town’s press launch, with audio captured within the video indicating it was an intentional hit.

“Simply bump him, brah,” a voice believed to be the 15-year-old suspect can allegedly be heard saying.

“Like bump him?” the driving force’s voice asks.

“Yeah, simply bump him. Go like 15 … 20,” the identical voice replied.

At this level, in keeping with the press launch, the video reveals the 11-year-old waving a handgun and laughing earlier than he geese down as his aspect of the automobile hits the person on the bicycle.

The video captured the sound of “steel flexing,” per police, as Habermehl and his bicycle flew over the passenger aspect of the car.

KOB4 did some further investigating into the felony histories of the juvenile suspects, uncovering an extended historical past of alleged and convicted felony exercise for the youngest two.

The information outlet studies that the 11-year-old already had an “in depth felony historical past,” with police connecting him to “a sequence of crimes together with taking pictures, housebreaking and extra.”

Police have tied him to the identical group of boys who rammed a automobile right into a comfort retailer and stole beer, cigarettes, and different alcohol on Might 17, 2024, forsaking greater than $15,000 in damages. In that occasion, the boys appeared to even be recording their actions, per police.

The 11-year-old was arrested June 7 in relation to these crimes, however not related to this deadly hit-and-run till this week.

He has not been charged, as police stated he is too younger to be charged with homicide, however they’re working with the district lawyer’s workplace and the Kids, Youth & Households Division to determine if and with what he may very well be charged.

KOB4 additionally appeared into the felony historical past of the 13-year-old suspect, revealing that he allegedly dedicated further crimes on the identical day that Habermehl was killed.

The 13-year-old was concerned in a number of alleged crimes within the spring of 2024, together with a college break-in on April 27 that concerned property harm, and extra prices. In these instances, he pled responsible to at least one cost and obtained a yr probation.

He then allegedly stole a automobile on Might 2, which police mixed with further crimes alleged on Might 12, when police imagine he assaulted 4 individuals, and Might 29 — the day of Habermehl’s homicide — when he allegedly shot from a automobile and at a constructing.

Habermahl had a PhD in physics and had labored for 30 years on the Sandia Nationwide Laboratories. He at all times rode his bicycle to work within the morning. He loved using horses, tending his wildflower backyard, mountaineering, snowboarding, and taking part in baseball along with his two sons, in keeping with his obituary.

“He was a consummate outdoorsman and cared deeply for the wild areas of the world,” the obituary learn.

And he additionally favored using his bike, with an Instagram publish from BikeABQ in July 2024 memorializing him noting, “His household estimates that he biked greater than 250,000 miles on the streets and bike paths of Albuquerque within the final three many years and says that he discovered nice peace and pleasure in his every day bike rides.”