On July 18, 2022, a dispute between two families at an Albuquerque apartment complex ended in the shooting death of Raul Gallegos, a 44-year-old Hispanic man. The incident began that afternoon when a woman named Daysha Aragon returned to her apartment at 6000 Topke Pl., N.E., and found a teenage boy in a bedroom with several teenage girls. According to police reports, the boy and one of the girls were putting their clothes on.
Aragon confronted the teen, and the argument escalated when
her boyfriend, 25-year-old Michael Anthony Koester, entered the room. Koester put the boy, who was Raul Gallegos’s son, in a bear hug and forcibly removed him from the apartment. The teen then called his family, telling them he was being battered by two adults and needed help. Aragon alleged that the boy told his family to bring guns, which prompted her to retrieve her own handgun from the apartment. Soon after, Raul Gallegos and his wife, Shamrah Gallegos, arrived at the complex.
A large fight erupted in the parking lot between members of both families. During the brawl, Koester and Raul Gallegos fought directly, with Koester at one point holding Gallegos against a car and throwing him to the ground. Prosecutors later stated that during the fight, Daysha Aragon, who was armed, began to suffer a seizure and fell. Koester then took the gun from her. A cellphone video captured part of the incident, showing Gallegos retreating toward his vehicle as Koester pointed the firearm at him. Koester fired three shots, striking Gallegos twice.
After being shot, Gallegos and his family drove away from the scene and flagged down a police service aide for help. He was transported to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Homicide detectives with the Albuquerque Police Department investigated the shooting and arrested Michael Anthony Koester, charging him with second-degree murder.
The case proceeded through the legal system, and prosecutors later determined that Koester had a credible self-defense claim, stating that Raul Gallegos had been armed with brass knuckles, which are considered a deadly weapon by law. In September 2023, under a plea agreement, Michael Koester, then 26, pleaded no contest to a felony charge of voluntary manslaughter. The agreement called for a sentence of five years of supervised probation.
