Cruces officers shoot 6 this year

LAS CRUCES — The Las Cruces police chief expressed concern about a recent string of police shootings in the Southern New Mexico city while deflecting some of the responsibility from officers.

Las Cruces police officers have shot at suspects in six different incidents this year — three times in the past month — and Chief Patrick Gallagher said he is troubled by the trend, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported last week.

Gallagher, former chief of the Santa Fe Police Department, said the speed at which such incidents develop often makes it difficult for officers to try to defuse a situation without firing their guns.

“Sometimes these incidents happen in a matter of seconds, precluding the opportunity to engage in any type of dialogue,” Gallagher said Wednesday during a news conference. “When somebody’s pointing a gun at somebody, our options are very limited. We have less-lethal options. These circumstances haven’t really lent themselves to that.”

Gallagher also deflected some of the responsibility for such incidents from police. He said many incidents in which officers fire on suspects involve people with a history of mental illness, substance abuse and domestic violence.

“Those are the problems we need to work on as a community,” he said.

The most recent officerinvolved shooting in Las Cruces happened Sept. 27, when police shot and killed Juan Angel Pinedo at Las Cruces High School.

On Sept. 23, an officer fired three shots at a man in a domestic dispute. The man was not hit.

The incident is being investigated by the Officer-Involved Incident Task Force, made up of detectives from several agencies.