Burglar shoots self during break-in

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - It was an unusual crime with an ending that was even more bizarre. 

A man broke into the home of a family he didn’t know, but what he did after that is something that family will never forget.

On July 10 Albuquerque police were called to a home near Coronado Center.  A watchful neighbor saw a man crawling through the window of the home and called 911.

APD lapel-camera video captured what happened next. 

Police surrounded the home.  They told neighbors to stay inside.  They told the suspect to come out peacefully.  When he didn’t come out, they went inside.

The suspect, Leland Burgess, fatally shot himself in the head with a gun he found in the home.  Police say he had his pockets stuffed with the family’s jewelry. 

Court records show Burgess had been in and out of jail for more than a decade for robbery, drugs and burglary.  Just a month before the July break-in he was behind bars in Albuquerque on drug charges. 

“We arrest people for these types of crimes.  They go to jail for these crimes and eventually they get released  on bond,” said APD Sgt. J.J. Griego. 

Police say many of those burglars are addicts, a big reason why Albuquerque sees 300-400 home burglaries a month.

“We have not had, since I’ve been here, a burglary case where there was not drug involvement in it,” Griego said.

In the latest case involving Burgess, family members said what happened was devastating and violating.  They say insurance paid for part of the clean-up but what happened in their home can’t be erased from their memories.

The Metropolitan Detention Center says it detoxes up to 700 inmates each month, and county leaders are discussing converting the old downtown jail into a rehab facility to try and treat even more inmates.