Dead woman’s uncle lunges at murder suspect and beats him in massive court brawl
A man lunged at and pummeled a murder suspect who allegedly killed his niece, turning a courtroom scene into a big brawl.
The court proceeding was unfolding normally with the orange jumpsuit clad suspect, Alexander Ortiz, standing in the middle of the room flanked by his attorney and a corrections officer, when a man jumped over a partition in the gallery and ran toward him.
CCTV footage obtained by KRQE shows Ortiz fleeing and the attacker, identified as Carlos Lucero, 40, lunging at him and both falling to the floor off the frame of the recording.
The officer also went to the ground, followed by another man on Lucero’s side. The suspect’s father, Joeray Ortiz, also got in the scuffle, along with two women who tried to pull Lucero and the second man away and then started kicking and using a chair to strike a man.
At least a half dozen men appeared to struggle on the floor of the courtroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Friday morning.
Lucero told deputies that Ortiz ‘killed my niece like a coward’ and that attacking him ‘was worth every moment’, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
The suspect’s dad walked in and began throwing blows to try to ‘break up the fight’, according to police reports seen by KRQE.
Officials eventually stopped the brawl and the second man was identified as Pete Ysasi, 51.
Both Lucero and Ysasi face charges of assault and battery on a peace officer.
Ortiz was charged in January 2024 with shooting dead his ex-girlfriend, Alianna Farfan, 20, in her bedroom last year. Farfan was discovered shot in the face trying to open a door and Ortiz allegedly jumped out of a window and fled. Ortiz is also charged with killing another woman a week later.
Second Judicial District Court CEO Katina Watson said the brawl ‘is just one more incident that we continue to deal with, these are the types of things that we see regularly’.
‘I really want to give recognition to the MDC officer who was caught in the middle of this and he did everything he could to ensure the safety of everyone,’ said Watson.
The wild ordeal happened just over a year after a felon leapt over a courtroom bench and attacked a Las Vegas judge who denied him probation in another incident caught on video.
About a month later, a different felon beat another inmate in the exact same courtroom.
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