Man tangles with local TV photographer

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A man locking up the site of a weekend rave party went on a tirade against a local photojournalist Monday morning.

Univision photojournalist Jim Morrison was staking out a warehouse where authorities broke up a rave party early Saturday morning.

Video obtained by News 13 from Univision Channel 41 shows a man yelling at Morrison as he was shooting video from the public sidewalk outside the business. The man has not been identified.

"Don't take any pictures of me," the man says as he walks towards his red pickup truck.

When Morrison indicates he is on the street, the man yelled "Go to hell!" The man then made an obscene gesture at the camera.

The video goes on to show the man grabbing Morrison's tripod and slamming in it onto the ground. He gets into his pickup truck, peels out heading directly towards Morrison, then swerves over enough to hit Morrison's tripod on the ground.

The bizarre altercation is a footnote to the rave that Albuquerque police officers and fire inspectors raided early Saturday morning.

"The place had no exit sign, no emergency lighting, no proof of occupancy, no panic bars on the doors, and insufficient exits," Albuquerque Fire Inspector Michael Royce said.

There were an estimated 700 people crammed into a warehouse on the property in the 3300 block of Los Arboles.

Police cited Chris Myers, 26, as the promoter of the event. Myer's connection to the site's owners or the unidentified man in the video is not known. The property is listed to Sedona Auto Sales.

As for the tirade, Morrison says he's glad it was only his tripod that took a beating.

"He looked like he had a short fuse," Morrison said. "Initially you could see [he had] an impulse to whack me."

Late Monday, Morrison declined to press assault charges against the man. Univision did tell News 13 they are hoping police pursue a charge of criminal damage to property against the man.