Fatal police shooting raises questions
The fatal police shooting on July 19 of a suspect who had been throwing what have been described as homemade explosives during a Santa Fe Police Department SWAT team standoff is tragic.
What the public doesn’t know for sure at this point is whether the shooting was a justified, inevitable and necessary ending to a strange and dangerous situation, or whether the fatality could have or should have been avoided.
Police lapel camera video of the police gunfire that killed Anthony Benavidez, 24, at a mid-city apartment complex is shocking to those of us not used to seeing this kind of violence up close and happening so quickly.
All within a half-minute or so, officers rip off the window of the apartment where Benavidez was holed up, shout for him to come out with hands up and an officer fires off 16 rounds in rapid succession through the rectangular hole in the exterior wall where there used to be a window.
Another officer adds a final shot. Benavidez is shown on later footage down just inside the window.
Benavidez had refused to leave the apartment. He’d been evicted the day before and deputies had taken him to the hospital for an evaluation but he wasn’t admitted.
Then there was violence on his part: On the day of the shooting, he broke into his old apartment, and then stabbed and wounded a social worker who’d been sent in to try to calm the situation. During an hourlong confrontation with responding officers, he threw out those would-be explosives, described as a bottle of ammonia and another item believed to be a combination of fireworks and something like a propane gas container.
At least one officer at the scene knew Benavidez and says on video he had refused to come out of the apartment before when police responded. His mother says he needed treatment for mental illness. The police reports say he had been receiving services from social workers.
The State Police is investigating. Here are some of the questions the investigation should answer:
Did Benavidez pose an immediate threat in the moments after the window was ripped out?
There is no view on available lapel cam video of what Benavidez was doing in those few seconds before he was shot. His apartment contained a strange mess of fireworks and other materials, but search warrant documents don’t show that any gun was found.
What prompted officers to move on Benavidez about an hour into the standoff, not long by SWAT standards? The ineffective homemade devices were clearly seen dangerous. Was an evacuation of the apartment building therefore considered as a way to protect public safety?
Were the officers on scene aware of any mental problems the suspect suffered from?
Were Benavidez problems obvious enough that personnel at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center should have admitted him to the hospital behavioral health unit when he was checked out the day before the shooting?
Clearing up the questions raised by this case is in the best interests of the police who face danger and split-second decisions every day, as well as in the public interest.
Someone — the police chief, maybe, or a district attorney — should stand up at some point down the line and do just that, taking queries from the reporters.
That happens elsewhere around the country, but not so often in New Mexico. Regardless of the particulars of this case, it’s time for that kind of stonewalling to go away.