APD cop investigated for role in brawl

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - It started as a simple noise complaint on a Saturday night but it's led to an internal affairs investigation of an Albuquerque police office r.

Andres Lucero says he was in his apartment when he got a knock on the door.

Outside was a police officer identified by APD as Greg Donofrio, who's been with the force for nearly seven years. A neighbor downstairs had called in a noise complaint, something that had apparently happened pretty frequently.

"He's called the cops on me more than 18 or 19 times stating that I was making loud noises," Lucero said.

Lucero says the two men argued for a few minutes before he proposed a solution to the long-simmering feud.

"Maybe you want to let us duke it out?" Lucero said he asked the officer. "And the police officer said, 'You want to duke it out?'"

After the two neighbors agreed to fight, Lucero says the officer promised he wouldn't take them to jail. That was good enough for the two men who brawled away.

"I kicked him in the ribcage and hit him in the [gut] a couple of times," Lucero said. "He got some lucky shots on me when I slipped."

A woman who lives next to Lucero says she witnessed the fight.

"He walked over and kind of looked at them and let them fight," said the woman who preferred to be identified only as Morgan. "I mean he was supposed to stop the fight, not encourage it."

Lucero says the officer broke up the fight after a few minutes and asked if either man needed an ambulance. Both declined initially, but Lucero's neighbor sought treatment on his own.

In a press release sent out Monday afternoon, APD says Donofrio is on administrative leave while internal affairs looks into the case. A department spokesperson declined to comment any further citing the ongoing investigation.