Was camper James Boyd about to give up?
Key question goes unanswered by lead APD homicide detective
A week of testimony in the trial of two former Albuquerque police officers ended Friday afternoon without a definitive opinion from the lead homicide investigator in the case as to whether homeless, mentally ill camper James Boyd was surrendering before police fatally shot him in 2014.
APD Detective Geoffrey Stone, under questioning by defense attorneys for Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez, said Boyd never put up his hands. He didn’t drop the knives he had wielded for hours. Nor did he specifically tell the officers who held him at gunpoint that he was going to surrender.
When special prosecutor Randi McGinn asked him whether Boyd’s turning to his left, as if to lie down on the ground, could be a surrender,
defense attorneys objected. Lawyers for both sides conferred with state District Judge Alisa Hadfield out of the jury’s hearing, and Stone left the witness stand without answering the question.
Testimony from other prosecution witnesses resumes Monday.
Boyd’s fatal shooting on March 16, 2014, was captured on a police helmet camera video that has played a pivotal role in both the defense and prosecution cases, along with numerous other audioand videotapes recorded by APD officers on the scene that evening.
Perez and Sandy are charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in Boyd’s fatal shooting.
The prosecution contends that the shooting wasn’t justified under the law. Defense attorneys say the two former officers were protecting a K-9 officer who got too close to Boyd during the standoff.
On the key video, Boyd turns to his left as police repeatedly yell, “Get on the ground, get on the ground,” then is shot.
The first bullets — fired by Sandy — hit Boyd in the right arm, which McGinn told jurors was consistent with Boyd’s turning to lie down. She said the video showed Boyd telling officers, “I want to walk with you. I’m trusting you to keep your word.”
In response to questions from Sandy’s attorney, Sam Bregman, detective Stone testified that Sandy did not violate the APD standard operating procedure for use of deadly force. Under that policy, officers are permitted to use deadly force if there is an imminent threat against themselves or to protect someone else.
Sandy fired three rounds, two of which hit Boyd in the arm. SWAT officer Perez, from a greater distance, followed up with three more rounds, one of which hit Boyd in the back. Boyd died the next morning.
Stone testified that there was an imminent threat because Boyd demonstrated his intent to kill APD officers during the standoff, and he had the means to carry out the threat because he was brandishing two knives when a K-9 officer trying to negotiate with him got too close.
An APD background check that night showed that Boyd, 38, was a paranoid schizophrenic who had a history of assaulting jail guards and police officers. His records also showed he was once transported for a mental evaluation for attempting to enter a military base. He was also described as a transient known to “frequent public libraries,” Stone testified.
Earlier Friday, former Albuquerque Open Space officer Patrick Hernandez said he considered shooting Boyd when he pulled two knives on him and his partner when they tried to pat him down. The incident sparked the standoff that ended with Boyd’s shooting more than three hours later.
The Open Space officers were responding to a neighbor’s complaint that Boyd was camping illegally in a city open space park at the end of Copper Road, east of Tramway.
Initially, Boyd was cordial from inside his makeshift tarp shelter, saying, “Hey, good evening,” according to a videotape worn by one of the officers.
But he refused to show both his hands, Hernandez testified, and when he did emerge, Boyd had a pocketknife clipped to his front pocket.
When the officers tried to pat him down, Boyd turned around brandishing two knives and taking steps toward them, Hernandez testified.
Hernandez, now retired, said neither he nor his partner opted to fire their weapons that evening. Instead, they calmed Boyd down, backed away and called for backup.
“I fall back on training,” Hernandez said. “You want to create distance (from Boyd). I had a lot of things go through my mind. Even an image of my face on the TV. Being in the media spotlight, not wanting to be, for lack of a better word, in the spotlight and trying to avoid that situation.”
“You were willing to risk your own safety to avoid the negative media attention that might follow?” asked Robles.
Hernandez, choked up with emotion, replied yes, “to prevent my family and other people from going through that.”
In his 10 years patrolling city open space, Hernandez said he would run into homeless campers several times a week, and sometimes the campers would have knives, to use as protection or as a camping tool.
But Hernandez said the Boyd encounter was the first time a homeless person had pulled out a weapon and threatened to kill him.