The recent hit-and-run death of Albuquerque cyclist Rosanna Breuninger again brings up the disproportionately high rate of hit-and-run pedestrian/cycling fatalities and the very low arrest rate of hit-and-run offenders. It also brings to mind another Albuquerque case of hit-and-run, one in which police and the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office have long known who committed the crime, yet apparently have not filed charges and left the offender free to commit other crimes and drive our roadways with impunity.

Early on the morning of September 30, 2021 Elizabeth Dunn was killed crossing Girard Blvd. at Vail Ave. Rather than sum up the incident and police report further, here’s the very well-written and detailed conclusion from that report, accessed via Better Burque public records request:

Further details into the incident and additional basis for investigating APD Officer A. Maldonado to find Pablo Herrera, Jr. as perpetrator are available below in the full crash and supplemental investigation report completed March 2022. Having read quite a few crash/investigatory reports in recent years, the clarity, depth, and straightforwardness in Officer Maldonado’s report is commendable and truly worth your time reading in full.

From all accounts, Pablo Herrera, Jr. is still a free young man driving our roadways. Since killing Elizabeth Dunn, Herrera has been charged and found guilty of DUI in an unrelated case. At last report, via NM Court Case Lookup, Herrera has a warrant out for his arrest after blowing off court-required Victim Impact Program attendance and community service hours demanded by Judge Christine Rodriquez in deferring sentencing from this DUI almost a year ago, on September 12, 2022.

Earlier in 2022, Herrera was charged with battery against a household member. Those charges were ultimately dismissed by Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office prosecutors on February 22nd of last year. Additionally, Herrera was found guilty of “Open Container” back in a 2015 case in which a DUI charge was, again, dropped, as were charges of speeding 11-15 mph over posted speed and having no insurance in 2016.

Following Elizabeth Dunn’s death in 2021, her husband, Ben Garland, died on November 23rd of last year. Mr. Garland’s mother has written that “Ben loved her and never recovered from her passing.”

The combined lack of justice and lasting repercussions from the killing of Elizabeth Dunn are unfortunately the norm, particularly in cases of hit-and-run. While pedestrians (and cyclists) account for a low percentage of roadways users, research taken from the 2021 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows that pedestrians account for 62% of hit-and-run fatalities (and cyclists 8%). While Albuquerque hit-and-run arrest rates don’t seem to be available online, other cities track and report these figures, with rates generally around only 10%. For instance, the Los Angeles Daily News’ Brenda Gazzar notes that, “In 2017, police identified a suspect – or solved – only 8 percent of all reported hit-and-runs in the city, according to data provided by the Los Angeles Police Department.”

Disheartening statistics as the community tries to find and prosecute the driver who killed Rosanna Breuninger. Yet, the 2021 killing of Elizabeth Dunn by Pablo Herrera, Jr. illustrates that even bucking the odds and successfully identifying a hit-and-run killer doesn’t necessarily lead to justice, even the filing of charges, at least to this point some two years after Dunn’s death.