Teens are charged with murder in the hit-and-run of a bicyclist posted on social media

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Police have charged a 13-year-old with murder, taken an 11-year-old into custody and are continuing to search for a 15-year-old in the apparently deliberate hit-and-run of a bicyclist in Albuquerque that was recorded on video inside a stolen car last year.

The detained 13-year-old boy is believed to be the driver of the car involved in the May 2024 hit-and-run that killed 63-year-old physicist Scott Dwight Habermehl while he was biking to his job at Sandia National Laboratories. The other boys are believed to have been passengers.

Video of the crash was recorded from inside the car and circulated on social media. It was reported to authorities by people including a middle school principal after a student flagged it.

A portion of the video, ending just before impact, was released by police Tuesday. It shows the car accelerating as the flashing tail light of a bicycle becomes visible. A voice believed to be the 15-year-old’s says, “Just bump him, brah.”

According to police, the driver asks, “Like bump him?”

A passenger says, “Yeah, just bump him. Go like … 15 … 20.”

The car veers into a marked, dedicated bike lane. Loud sounds can then be heard in the full recording, including “metal flexing,” according to law enforcement.

The 13-year-old and 15-year-old have been charged with an open count of 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, police said in a statement.

The 11-year-old will be put in the custody of the state's Children, Youth & Families Department and evaluated. A little over a week after the fatal crash, police had arrested him on an unrelated felony warrant, according to law enforcement.

Detectives are working with prosecutors and state social workers to determine what charges can be brought against an 11-year-old and whether he might be detained. For youths 13 or under, juvenile courts adjudicate charges with a maximum sentence to juvenile detention ending at age 21. Children ages 11 and younger can’t be held at a juvenile detention center.

The Associated Press doesn’t typically name people under 18 accused of a crime. Michael Rosenfield, a publicly appointed attorney for the 13-year-old defendant, declined to comment on the case ahead of an initial meeting with the boy.

Under New Mexico law, teenagers ages 15 to 18 — and 14 in some instances after evaluation — can be tried in adult court only for first-degree murder after a grand jury indictment. Authorities can pursue adult sentencing in juvenile court for several serious crimes, said Dennica Torres, district defender for Law Offices of the Public Defender.

A similar case involving teenage boys who allegedly recorded themselves deliberately hitting a bicyclist who ended up dying happened in Las Vegas in 2023.

State legislators in New Mexico have advanced a bill with House approval that would slightly expand the share of juvenile cases that carry the potential for adult sentencing. Time is running short for the state Senate to vet the bill and vote on it before the Legislature adjourns Saturday at noon.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement that she was horrified by video of the collision — and “appalled” by inaction by legislators on juvenile justice reform proposals.

FILE - The Albuquerque Police Department headquarters is seen, Feb. 2, 2024, in Albuquerque, N.M. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

SAO PAULO (AP) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is undergoing double hernia surgery on Thursday at a hospital in the country's capital, his family said.

Bolsonaro, who has been hospitalized since Wednesday, has been serving a 27-year prison sentence since November for an attempted coup.

He was granted court permission to leave prison after federal police doctors confirmed that he needed the procedure. The surgery in Brasilia is expected to last about four hours, the DF Star hospital medical team said in a statement Wednesday.

Doctors say Bolsonaro's double hernia causes him pain. The former leader, who was in power between 2019 and 2022, has gone through several other surgeries since he was stabbed in the abdomen during a campaign rally in 2018.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw Bolsonaro’s coup trial and sentenced him to prison, authorized the procedure, but denied the former president’s request for house arrest after he leaves the hospital.

Bolsonaro doesn't have any contact with the few other inmates at the federal police headquarters in Brasilia, where he is held and where his 12-square-meter (around 130-square-foot) room has a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a television and a desk, according to authorities.

He has free access to his doctors and lawyers, but other visitors must receive approval from the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, de Moraes authorized Bolsonaro’s sons to visit him while he's hospitalized. His wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, is accompanying him.

Early Thursday, his eldest son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, told reporters before the surgery that his father had written a letter confirming he had appointed him as his political party's presidential candidate in next year’s election. Flávio Bolsonaro announced on Dec. 5 that he will challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, as the candidate of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party.

The senator read the letter to journalists, and his office released a reproduction of it to the media.

“He represents the continuation of the path of prosperity that I began well before becoming president, as I believe we must restore the responsibility of leading Brazil with justice, resolve and loyalty to the aspirations of the Brazilian people,” Bolsonaro said in the handwritten letter, dated Dec. 25.

The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democratic system following his 2022 election defeat.

The plot included plans to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and de Moraes. There was also a plan to encourage an insurrection in early 2023.

Bolsonaro was also convicted on charges that include leading an armed criminal organization and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Follow the AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro points to his electronic ankle monitor that the Supreme Court ordered him to wear, at Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, July 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Minervino Junior, CB/D.A Press, File)