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Warning: This article includes video footage that some viewers may find disturbing.

Harrowing body-camera video released by the Albuquerque Police Department on Thursday shows a lieutenant shooting an undercover officer during a botched drug bust in January 2015.

Body-camera video shows an Albuquerque police lieutenant shooting an undercover officer in January 2015. (Credit: Albuquerque Police Department)
Body-camera video shows an Albuquerque police lieutenant shooting an undercover officer in January 2015. (Credit: Albuquerque Police Department)

Officer Jacob Grant was grievously wounded in the incident by his supervisor, Lt. Greg Brachle, the Albuquerque Journal reported, citing police.

The footage begins as the lieutenant exits his vehicle and approaches the driver’s side of a black four-door sedan. Two other officers are seen walking up to the car on the passenger’s side.

“Put your hands where I can see them!”Brachle yells out, addressing the occupants of sedan. He then shouts: “Gun! Gun!”

At least half a dozen gunshots are heard as the lieutenant backs away from the car. He then approaches it again and realizes that an undercover fellow officer, who is in the back seat of the vehicle, has been shot.

“It’s Jacob,” Brachle says, horrified. “Are you OK? Come on out. I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know it was you.”

The injured policeman’s colleagues help him out of the car and tend to him as he lies on the ground.

“Jacob, man, hang in there bro,” Brachle says in the video, his voice cracking with emotion. “I thought you were a bad guy.”

The footage was released Thursday evening, one day after Albuquerque settled a lawsuit Grant had brought against the city by agreeing to pay $6.5 million, according to The Journal. He was also awarded lifetime coverage for medical expenses and disability retirement.

“The community and department are deeply affected by this tragedy,” police Chief Gordon Eden said in a statement released Thursday. “As hard as it is to watch and review this video, it is imperative we learn from it. We immediately upgraded undercover officers’ training and equipment following this operation and improved supervision, communication and our procedures.”

All narcotics investigations were stopped for 30 days after the “tragic blue-on-blue shooting,” which occurred on Jan. 9, 2015, the department said.

In the aftermath of the incident, attendance was made mandatory at briefings prior to all operations, according to the agency.

Although Brachle did not attend a briefing held before the botched drug sting, he responded to the scene when he learned it was underway, KOAT reported.

Brachle retired from the department last month, days before the Police Oversight Board recommended that he be fired for violating several policies in the shooting, according to The Journal.