Cars stuck in crime scene ticketed

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque police still haven't found the gunman who killed a man outside a rap concert downtown Thursday night.

But, people who parked in what would become a murder scene did find parking tickets on their cars after the crime scene tape finally came down.

The shooting happened in a downtown parking lot as a concert at the Sunshine Theater let out around midnight.

The whole area on the south side of Central Avenue from Second to Third Streets was blocked off for more than 10 hours so investigators could work. One of the cars parked on the street in the crime scene was Robert Espinoza’s

‘I was told to leave my vehicle here,” said Espinoza.

The downtown bouncer had no problem with that, but because he works two jobs, he knew it wouldn't be until the afternoon before he could get back to his car.

“I called Parking Enforcement, and they told me I wasn't going to receive any citations, and I received a citation,” said Espinoza. “I spoke to the person that issued the citation.  She said I should have gotten my car as soon as the barricades were open.  I was at work at that time.”

Even the city concedes that's not citizen relations.

“Well, certainly we want to have better customer service,” Mark Motsko with the city's Department of Municipal Development, which oversees parking lots.

A parking officer went to the area just 10 minutes after the crime-scene tape came down and started slapping tickets on windshields.

“Our parking enforcement officer made a mistake and went back in and cited about 10 vehicles,” said Motsko.  The city is throwing all those tickets out and will be making sure it doesn't happen again, he added.

“(We will be) more than accommodating as far as letting them get back into the area and get their vehicles,” said Motsko.

Espinoza is glad to have the ticket tossed but added, “It's not the point of the cost it's just the point that I had talked to people and they said I was going to receive nothing.”

Parking Enforcement says they will work closer with the Albuquerque Police Department so they know when a scene is going to be opened back up to give drivers a few hours to pick up their cars.

Meanwhile cops are still trying to solve the murder. Police say the killer targeted 20-year-old John Pressley after a fight spilled out of the theater.