New Mexico teens, 13 and 15, charged with murder in hit-and-run of bicyclist posted on social media

Police in New Mexico said a 13-year-old boy has been with murder, took an 11-year-old into custody and are searching for a 15-year-old boy in connection with the deadly hit-and-run of a bicyclist that was recorded on video from inside a stolen car and circulated on social media.

Albuquerque police said the 13-year-old and 15-year-old have both been charged with an open count of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death and unlawful possession of a handgun by a person.

Authorities believe the 13-year-old was the driver of the car that killed 63-year-old physicist Scott Dwight Habermehl, who was fatally struck at around 4:40 a.m. on May 29, 2024, as he was biking to his job at Sandia National Laboratories. 

“Like bump him?” the driver asks. 

“Yeah, just bump him. Go like…15…20,” another passenger said. 

“There were loud sounds, including metal flexing, as the momentum of the crash carried Habermehl and his bicycle on top, and off, the passenger side of the vehicle,” police said. 

The 11-year-old, who was allegedly waving a handgun at the time of the crime, will be put in the custody of the state’s Children, Youth & Families Department and evaluated. A little over a week after the fatal crash, police had arrested him on an unrelated felony warrant, according to law enforcement.

Detectives are working with prosecutors and state social workers “to determine what charges he may face and whether he can be held on those charges,” according to the police statement.

The case echoes a similar hit-and-run in Las Vegas that killed a retired police chief who was bicycling as the teen suspects laughed.