Inset: Scott Habermehl (Daniels Family funeral home). Background: Street in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where teens allegedly hit and killed Habermehl as he rode his bicycle (Google Maps).
“Just bump him, brah.”
That’s what a 15-year-old boy could be heard on video saying to the driver of a stolen vehicle — his 13-year-old buddy — as they drove the car down an Albuquerque, New Mexico, street early one morning in May while they approached a man riding his bicycle in the bike lane, police said in a press release.
“Like bump him?” the driver allegedly asked.
“Yeah, just bump him. Go like 15 … 20 [mph],” the 15-year-old who sat in the back seat responded, according to cops.
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The 13-year-old boy allegedly accelerated the car toward the bicyclist, later identified as 63-year-old Scott Dwight Habermehl, who was riding to work at Sandia National Laboratory. As he approached Habermehl, the front seat passenger, an 11-year-old boy, waved a handgun and started laughing when they hit the cyclist, cops say.
“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,” cops wrote.
Habermehl was killed and the boys drove away, police said.
Albuquerque police investigated the May 29 hit-and-run crash on Moon Street and Atkinson Avenue but were unable to determine those responsible until cops received an anonymous tip last month that a video showing the incident was posted to an Instagram account. As cops zeroed in on the account, a middle school principal also contacted police to say a student had reported the video.
It turned out police already were in possession of the 13-year-old and 11-year-old’s phones from a separate, unrelated investigation. Detectives obtained search warrants to examine the phones and social media accounts and uncovered the video that allegedly captured the audio of the crash.
The two older boys stand accused of open 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. Cops say the 11-year-old is too young to be charged with murder and are working with prosecutors to determine what charges he may face.
According to his obituary, Habermehl worked as a physicist at Sandia for nearly 30 years.
“During his time there, he produced over 50 journal publications and six patents, including some of the most groundbreaking work allowing for integrated circuits and memories to become radiation hardened. These are techniques that are still used to this day for national security and space applications,” the obituary said.
His family told the Corrales Comment that he would make the 25-mile trek from his home to work and back on his bicycle each day.
“He never regretted biking to work because it’s such a nice experience,” his son Scott Thomas Habermehl said. “It’s honestly just way more pleasant than driving home in traffic on I-25 and then traffic on Alameda.”
As of Tuesday morning, cops had the 13-year-old boy in custody but were still looking for the two other suspects. It’s unclear if the other boys will be charged as adults. According to the Interstate Commission for Juveniles, kids as young as 14 can have their case transferred from juvenile to adult court.
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