Details of fatal shooting by deputies released
Anti-police brutality protest moved to site of killing
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office released more details about the killing of a man by deputies Monday afternoon — the agency’s first fatal shooting of the year.
Jayme Fuller, a BCSO spokeswoman, said the man pointed a gun at nearby residents and fired at deputies before at least two fired back, killing him.
Fuller did not identify the man killed or say how many shots were fired by him or deputies. She said two deputies are on paid administrative leave.
In a statement, Sheriff Manuel Gonzales III said deputies must make “split-second decisions” to protect the public and themselves “when faced with deadly force.”
“While it is extremely unfortunate that a life was lost in this incident, it is completely unacceptable to recklessly discharge a firearm into a residential neighborhood, placing the citizens’ and deputies’ lives in immediate danger,” he said.
The fatal shooting prompted a demonstration against police brutality in Southeast Albuquerque to move to the scene, with protesters crowding behind the yellow tape and speaking to deputies through a loudspeaker.
Barron Jones of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said BCSO’s track record of fatal shootings should be “alarming to all of us.”
“Doubly alarming is the likelihood we will never get the full story — as Sheriff Gonzales has stubbornly refused to equip his deputies with body-worn cameras,” said Jones, a senior policy strategist with the ACLU.
Jones urged the BCSO to comply with a new state law requiring officers to use body cameras so the community will “finally have the transparency and accountability it deserves.”
This is the second time BCSO deputies have shot someone this year, but the first that was fatal. On March 3, Deputy Christopher Starr shot and wounded Kevin Torgerson, 27, when he allegedly reached for a handgun after crashing his car and causing a disturbance on Interstate 40 near Carnuel.
According to a news release sent out by BCSO on Tuesday afternoon:
Deputies responded around 4 p.m. to a neighborhood near Louisiana and Alameda NE after a 911 call about a man “walking around and pointing a gun” in the area. Deputies arrived and saw the man fire a gun before commanding him over a loudspeaker to drop the weapon. Deputies said the man then took “a position of advantage” by lying down in a grassy area and, at 4:16 p.m., fired multiple shots at deputies. Deputies requested “an immediate response” from the Mobile Crisis Team Unit — which includes a detective and mental health clinician.
Less than a minute later, two deputies shot the man as he “tried to fire back.” The man died at the scene.
When asked, Fuller said mobile crisis teams are called in the event a suspect begins to comply and is not an imminent danger.
“Unfortunately, the suspect did not comply and was actively firing his weapon at deputies, making him an extreme danger to the deputies and surrounding neighborhood,” she said.
The shooting is being investigated by a multi-agency task force that includes BCSO, the Albuquerque Police Department and New Mexico State Police.
Local activist Arthur Bell said he was at a demonstration with the Black New Mexico Movement at Louisiana and Central when a person in the crowd told the others about the shooting.
“It was kind of ironic and, at the same time, it wasn’t something that we couldn’t believe happened, due to the fact that APD as well as BCSO are both trigger-happy,” he said.
Bell said the crowd moved to the scene and tried to speak with deputies but “didn’t get any response.”
“It’s basically just a recurring cycle of police violence and nobody being held accountable,” he said.