Ex-security guard accused of attacking homeless man, shooting dog

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A now-former security guard, who caught a break after he pleaded guilty to beating a man, is in trouble once again. We are now seeing newly released video of that beating and learn what he is now accused of doing to a homeless man and the man’s dog.

“Came up over here, I had two people sitting; I had already told them to leave about 10 minutes ago that they were loitering,” Martin Sandoval says in the video. It was October 2023 when he tried to explain to police what happened while he was working as a security guard at the Central and Eubank Walgreens.

That’s where Sandoval told a man and a woman in the parking lot they were loitering and needed to leave. The woman said she told Sandoval they were waiting on a prescription. He left and quickly returned.

“That guy turned around and said ‘I told you once and you’re not going to loiter here,’ or something,” a witness says in the video.

At first, Sandoval told investigators the man fell and hit his head on the curb. But the video shows Sandoval hitting the victim in the head with a baton, then hitting him again, and kicking him, before walking away. This leaves the man with a serious head injury.

“His whole jaw was swollen up like it was either a really good fall or he got hit and I just don’t know. So, luckily there’s cameras,” an AFR first responder says on the video.

Sandoval pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was given a conditional discharge. This means if he had successfully followed the rules of his probation, he could have avoided a conviction on his record.

But on June 15, Sandoval was arrested again. This time, he’s accused of donning a security guard’s shirt, and falsely claiming to work for a nearby business before punching a homeless man near Coors and Old Airport Road. Then, the criminal complaint says, Sandoval shot and killed the man’s dog.

Sandoval is facing new charges including battery and extreme cruelty to animals, along with violating his probation in the earlier case. He’s being held in MDC.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.