It was less than a week after 38 year-old Andrew Rivas got out of jail for assaulting a police officer when he was arrested for breaking into multiple homes in Bernalillo and assaulting more police officers.
Around 9 p.m. on Feb. 11, Sandoval County dispatch received a call that Rivas was armed with an ax and was trying to break through the front door of a home on the 500 block of Calle Raquela in Bernalillo. As officers investigated that first alleged crime scene, dispatchers obtained information that Rivas was hiding behind a vehicle on the 500 block of Calle Don Ernesto. When officers arrived at the second location and told Rivas to exit the property, he fled, and broke into a third residence on the same block according to police reports. It was there that the physical struggle with Bernalillo Police and Sandoval County Sheriff’s officers occurred.
A criminal complaint states that juvenile residents at the Calle Don Ernesto home got out of the house through the windows once Rivas gained access. They told officers that a woman living in the house was still in the home with the suspect, and that the suspect had put something in front of the door. Officers outside the house looked through a small bathroom window and saw a woman hiding inside with the door closed.
Fearing for the safety of the female, officers broke the window and removed her from the bathroom just before Rivas got through the door. According to the police report, officers deployed tasers and beanbags to bring the suspect into custody, but only after he allegedly threw a TV, chairs, metal grates from a stove, and pieces from a broken door at officers.
Rivas is accused of attempting to shut a door on a police dog who was deployed to help subdue the violent suspect. The report states that Rivas continued to fight with officers and their dog despite being hit with a less-than-lethal bean bag. It took two officers and a taser to wrestle Rivas into handcuffs.
Officers say they located an ax stashed in the front yard of a fourth house on Calle Don Ernesto which they believe was used in the initial burglary. Rivas was charged with tampering with evidence for allegedly trying to hide the weapon.
Rivas was taken by ambulance to receive medical care. He was booked on Feb 15 into the Sandoval County Detention Center and charged with 24 violations including aggravated burglary, breaking and entering, false imprisonment, resisting, aggravated assault/battery on peace officers, and injury to a police dog.
Rivas is still in custody.
A history with the police
Rivas has had a history of violent encounters with police according to court records. Rivas had already been charged for assaulting Sandoval County Sheriff’s deputies. According to a November 2023 report, Rivas was charged with two counts of aggravated battery on a police officer and three counts of aggravated assault on a police officer for attacking an officer with rocks. In that report, the officer stated that Rivas “advised me that I was going to remember this.”
On Feb. 5, Rivas plead guilty to the 2023 Aggravated Assault on a Police Officer charges, and was granted a suspended sentence and released from jail for the first time since mid-November.
In the Feb. 15 issue of the Signpost, we reported on a story involving K9 Sgt. Luke Osborn with the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office who was tasered during a burglary. Read that story here.
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