Son says APD dealt low blow

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - He calls it a low blow. A former cop, once charged with murder and later acquitted, says Albuquerque Police gave him the shell casing from the bullet that killed his father. A move he says is nothing but spiteful.

Orlando Camacho says he was just trying to get some of his personal items out of APD’s evidence. When he got his things he says the casing was inside, but APD says they can explain.

“It's mean, it's just plain mean,” said Camacho.

The bullet casing may not look like much, but for Camacho, “It just brought back memories of everything from the incident with my dad, getting fired, getting indicted.  It was like I was rushing through a bad dream again.”

In 2006 Camacho and his father figure, Kirk Carroll, got into a heated fight.

“Became very physical, my face was beaten up pretty bad,” said Camacho. ”And during that argument the gun went off.”

Carroll died at the scene. At the time of the shooting Camacho was an APD cop. He lost his job soon after, but in 2009 a jury acquitted Camacho of second degree murder.

After that he sued the city and APD for wrongful termination and won.

Camacho says a few months later he started asking for personal items cops had taken as evidence that night.

After several weeks he got his stuff back, and that's when he made the shell casing discovery.

“I couldn't believe my eyes…. who in their right mind would ask for that back,” said Camacho. “I don't know if they try to say ‘here's your trophy’”.

Deputy Chief Paul Feist says it’s not that at all, ‘Absolutely in no way did we mean to be disrespectful to anybody. It's that person's propert.  That property was returned by order of a judge.”

Camacho says there was no judge's order, and as far as the claim that the bullets are his property, “It wasn't my personal bullet, I didn't buy that bullet,” said Camacho.

Camacho’s APD duty weapon was used in the shooting; the bullets he says were bought by the city.

“It's an excuse and that's what they are used to giving, they are not used to saying you know what we screwed up or you know what we shouldn't have given this back,” said Camacho.

A jury awarded Camacho six thousand dollars in his civil suit against the city. That was because they determined the city had violated his rights when the APD fired him.

Camacho had wanted his job back with APD but the department says they will not rehire him.