Inset: Demetrius Thomas (Metropolitan Detention Center/Bernalillo County). Background: The area in Albuquerque, N.M., where Demetrius Thomas allegedly caused a fatal crash involving a pedestrian (Google Maps).
A New Mexico man allegedly killed a woman while driving under the influence, fled the scene, and then called his father for a ride; the father subsequently turned him over to police, stating, “He’s the one who f,‑ing did it.”
Demetrius Thomas, 34, faces accusations of striking and killing a woman while operating a gray Ford SUV near Central Avenue NE and Texas Street SE in Albuquerque on September 25, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime.
Instead of stopping, Thomas drove approximately 0.6 miles to his apartment, leaving the victim dead in the roadway as bystanders performed CPR, the complaint states.
When officers arrived at the crash site, a man flagged them down and pointed toward a gray SUV departing the area. The complaint identifies the flagger as Thomas’s father.
“Come over here because he’s the one who f,‑ing did it,” the father allegedly told the officers.
The SUV Thomas was operating displayed damage to its front passenger‑side bumper and hood, and its passenger‑side windshield was caved in. Thomas exited the vehicle and was detained.
Investigators later learned that Thomas called his father after the crash and asked him to pick him up. “I’m like, ‘Son, what the f, do you want me to do?’” the father recalled saying, according to the complaint. “Um, you gotta go back over there. You hit somebody. You don’t know if they hurt or not, you gotta go back over there.”
Thomas’s father allegedly asked his son whether he had been drinking. “Yeah,” Thomas replied, the complaint reports.
During initial questioning, however, Thomas told police that he had not consumed anything that could impair his ability to drive, including alcohol or drugs.
While officers placed him into a patrol vehicle, they asked again whether he had consumed alcohol. This time, he allegedly admitted to drinking “one shot of Admiral Nelson around 9 a.m.”
Thomas then explained the fatal collision, stating, “She ran out in front of me and I didn’t want to stop,” the complaint records. He claimed he was traveling at the speed limit because “there’s a camera right there.”
He added, “I stepped on the brake and she hit, she ran into the car and I got scared.”
Thomas allegedly acknowledged that he returned home after the collision because he was frightened and said his parents instructed him to turn himself in.
Police obtained surveillance footage from an Albuquerque transit bus showing Thomas’s SUV traveling along Central Avenue while straddling the left and center lanes. The footage captures the victim crossing the roadway southbound, beginning to run, and being struck on the SUV’s passenger side; police say the victim died on impact.
Thomas allegedly failed his field‑sobriety tests, leading police to determine that he was impaired while driving. Authorities have charged him with homicide by vehicle‑DWI and knowingly leaving the scene of a death.
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