ABQ homeowner facing wrongful death lawsuit

Victim shot in foothills driveway may have been ‘looking around’

The grandmother of a man who police say was killed while breaking into a foothills garage is suing the homeowner who shot him.

The wrongful death lawsuit filed in state District Court Oct. 15 alleges Clayton Jenkins was shot in the back as he stood in Christopher Rivera’s driveway on Avital NE in October 2018.

“Jenkins posed no threat whatsoever to the safety of Defendant Rivera or his property,” the lawsuit states. “Defendant had no legal justification for using deadly force against Jenkins.”

Attempts to reach Rivera on Thursday afternoon were not successful, and it is not clear whether he has hired an attorney.

The lawsuit alleges Jenkins, 22, had nothing in his hands when he was shot and Rivera did not shout warnings or commands before firing. Attorney Mark Caruso, who is representing the grandmother, believes the garage door had been left open.

“He didn’t have anything in his possession, he had a bike, he didn’t have a car. What was he going to take?” Caruso said. “The kid’s never had any trouble. According to his grandma, he’s a decent, good kid. And he saw a garage door open, he may have gone in, he may have looked around.”

But the account provided by Caruso and outlined in the suit differs from the one police offered shortly after the deadly

shooting.

Rivera told police in an interview that he was alerted to a break in by his home’s security system. He grabbed a handgun and went to check the garage.

“Christopher yelled at the intruder to get down on the ground and the male yelled something back at him. Christopher identified the object in the intruder’s hand as a rock and fired his handgun twice,” detectives wrote in an affidavit. They also reported finding a blue plastic putty knife beside Jenkins’s body.

Jenkins’ family is seeking monetary and wrongful death damages, including medical, funeral and burial costs, pain and suffering, lost earnings and loss of consortium.

A spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office said the case is under review and prosecutors are waiting for additional reports before making a decision about how to move forward.