Violence erupts at Fat Tuesday bashes

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Every available officer was needed to deal with the violence in downtown Albuquerque when Fat Tuesday became wild Wednesday.

Police said within a matter of hours one man was stabbed and an officer was punched.

Police reports described the scene downtown as “several unruly crowds gathering outside liquor establishments. The different crowds that had gathered numbered in the hundreds and there were several fights erupting.”

As the crowd dispersed police found a man who was stabbed twice. One of those wounds was close to his spine.

“He didn't know who stabbed him, he had no offender information whatsoever,” Deputy Chief Beth Paiz said.

However, the calls started hours before all the chaos erupted. One of the first calls to police was around 10:30 p.m. when detectives said a fight broke out near Third Street and Central Avenue.

Police said an officer trying to break it up was punched.

Three men were arrested; one was charged with battery on a peace officer.

Within the next few hours more officers would be called downtown. Paiz said one by one the emergency calls started pouring in.

“From about 1:01 to 2:06 there were about one, two, there, four about five calls right in a row,” Paiz said.

Paiz said during that time is when the area sergeant called all units downtown and sent out a request for any available officers, across the city, to take care of other calls for the rest of the valley.

Paiz said police just didn't expect the crowd to be this big last night.

“Last year it did not happen.  The year before it did not happen,” Paiz said.

Paiz said bar owners never told them they would be having Fat Tuesday bashes. She said if they would have known more resources would have been there earlier, and they would have considered blocking off the streets like they do on weekends.

Some bar managers told KRQE News 13 it's always crowded on Mardi Gras. One of those bars had an advertisement for their Fat Tuesday event outside of the club.

This is not the first time for violence this year when it comes to the downtown area. Over a span of five weeks there have been reports of a shooting, two stabbings and fights.

Both of last night's incidents happened outside the One-Up elevated lounge. The city's Safe City Strike Force recently served that club a letter asking them to better screen who they let in.