Lawsuit filed over 2015 police shooting
Man left confined to wheelchair after being shot numerous times
The mother of a man who had a portion of his brain removed after he was shot in the head by Albuquerque police officers in 2015 has filed a lawsuit against the city and 15 officers.
Loretta Garcia, Rodrigo Garcia’s mother, brought the complaint on her son’s behalf. Joe Kennedy, an attorney for the Garcia family, said Rodrigo Garcia is confined to a wheelchair and has difficulty comprehending, though he can speak and recognize people. He’s recovered about as much as he can and needs constant care from his parents. Garcia was 20 when he was shot numerous times by Albuquerque police officers while he was trying to flee from them in a stolen truck. Police have said that one officer was knocked over as Garcia drove through a fence while trying to escape arrest.
does not have any indication that this case has been served upon the clerk, however our legal department will review it when it is received,” Alicia Manzano, the communications director for the city, said in a statement.
Albuquerque, as part of a reform effort brought on by a Department of Justice investigation, which found police had a pattern of excessive force, has revamped its use-offorce policies to restrict officers from shooting at motor vehicles.
Police officials have attributed the DOJ reform effort to a decline in shootings. Albuquerque police fired their weapons 86 times in the line of duty from 2010 through 2015. They have shot one person this year.
“Hopefully, today, with the changes from the DOJ, this wouldn’t happen,” Kennedy said in an interview. “It was sort of the end of this type of police shooting — an overreaction and unconstitutional.”
Garcia was an automobile theft suspect who police said the night before tried to ram a sergeant in a stolen Chevrolet Tahoe. The next day, police received a tip that Garcia was near the 6200 block of Trujillo SW.
When numerous officers approached him, police said Garcia got back into a stolen vehicle and tried to flee. He rammed through a fence, which knocked a lieutenant to the ground, according to prior police accounts and police reports.
That’s when 10 officers opened fire at Garcia, who was still in the vehicle. He was shot seven times, including once in the head, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit said that officers fired more than 70 rounds over the course of two separate volleys of gunfire.
“By the time officers had finished shooting, Mr. Garcia lay in his car, motionless and incapacitated, covered in blood and gravely injured,” the lawsuit said. “Garcia has no weapon and was in dire need of medical care.”
After Garcia was shot, police initiated the SWAT team and it was about two hours before police removed him from the vehicle and had him transported to the hospital to be treated for injuries, according to the lawsuit.
Criminal charges were brought against Garcia, but they were eventually dismissed because of his physical condition. His attorney in the criminal case said during a court hearing that Garcia had part of his brain removed during surgery, and he had to have open-heart surgery. She said her client is on a respirator, a ventilator, a feeding tube and dialysis and is paralyzed on the right side of his body.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2nd Judicial District Court last month, says officers violated Garcia’s civil rights and is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.