N.M. Medics Treat Woman Beaten, Pushed Off Bridge
June 04--3:26 P.M. -- Police are praising the citizen and paramedic response Tuesday morning that likely prevented one woman's death and allowed officers to make an arrest in an alleged brutal assault that ended with a woman being stuffed in a trunk and then shoved off a Rio Grande bridge.
Police said a man yanked two people out of a sedan's trunk Tuesday morning and shoved one of them off a Central Avenue bridge over the Rio Grande.
Both the victims, a man and woman between the ages of 50 and 70, were badly injured after being beaten, but they are both listed as in stable condition. Police haven't released the victims' names, and they haven't yet been questioned. It's also unclear how the victims know each other, but police said Montano likely knew the victims.
Martin Montano, 26, will face charges after witnesses told police he pulled the victims out of his sedan's trunk after badly beating them, then shoved one woman off a bridge, police said.
A witness then pulled the woman out of the river, where paramedics treated the woman before rushing her to the hospital.
Neighbors called police around 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday to report seeing a man stuff two people into the trunk of his green sedan.
About eight minutes later, witnesses called police to tell them about seeing a man, later identified as Montano, police said, pull the two people out of the trunk and shove the woman off the bridge.
Albuquerque Police Department spokeswoman Tasia Martinez said the two had been beaten, but she couldn't describe the type or extent of the injuries.
After the woman was shoved off the bridge, a witness chased Montano's car more than five miles to Carlisle and Comanche and alerted police. Montano was arrested without incident and was being questioned as of Tuesday afternoon.
The man was also rushed to the hospital after he was seen standing on the bridge, bleeding heavily.
Martinez praised the "cohesive" response to the crime, which she said could ended without an arrest and possibly even a death had Albuquerque residents not been so vigilant in calling police. Paramedics also had to move quickly to bring the woman out of the river and maneuver her to an ambulance blocked by the forest.
While police haven't yet released information about a possible motive in the alleged attack, they believe Montano knows the victims because of his prior addresses.
Police kept the bridge closed until more than three hours after their response just in case the woman died from her injuries, requiring a full crime-scene investigation.
Since 2007, Montano has been charged with at least one domestic violence and battery charge, in addition to one drug charge. It's unclear from online court records where those cases stand or how Montano pleaded.
Police said a man yanked two people out of a sedan's trunk Tuesday morning and shoved one of them off a Central Avenue bridge over the Rio Grande.
Both the victims, a man and woman between the ages of 50 and 70, were badly injured after being beaten, but they are both listed as in stable condition.
Martin Montano, 26, is being questioned now after witnesses told police he pulled the alleged victims out of his sedan's trunk after badly beating them, then shoved one woman off a bridge.
A witness then pulled the woman out of the river, where she was treated by paramedics and rushed to the hospital.
For more information, pick up tomorrow's Albuquerque Journal.
-- Email the reporter at plohmann@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3943
Copyright 2013 - Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
