BCSO video shows chase, shootout
Deputy shooting captured by on-body camera for first time
For the first time, the events leading up to a shooting involving Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputies have been captured by an on-body camera.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Sheriff Manuel Gonzales showed videos taken from his deputies’ cameras and a security camera at the house where the shooting took place.
He also laid out the events leading up to the death of Ezekiel Meza, 41, who reportedly had fired shots in a fight nearby and then fired his gun again as deputies chased him through the backyard of a
South Valley home. Meza died at the scene.
The Journal could not reach his family.
Deputies Lorenzo Herrera and Jonathan Skroch each fired multiple times. Both deputies were still on administrative leave, which is standard, on Tuesday.
The two are rookie officers who have been with BCSO for a year and two months and out in the field for about six months, Gonzales said. It is Herrera’s second shooting — in August, he and another deputy returned fire at a man they said was shooting at them in a vacant, overgrown lot north of Alameda. That man died of his injuries.
In regard to the new technology — which BCSO unveiled last month in response to legislation passed over the summer requiring all law enforcement in the state to wear cameras — Gonzales said he found value in it and is looking at ways for the videos to enhance training.
“It’s not the magic potion that everybody was thinking it would be; it’s another piece in the puzzle,” Gonzales said about the body cameras. “For us, we know that nothing will ever take the place of a thorough investigation.”
Around 11:18 p.m. on Jan. 31, a woman called 911 to say her tenant had borrowed something, then he got mad at her and her boyfriend and ended up firing shots at visitors they had coming over.
Deputies Skroch and Herrera were nearby and heard the shots, so they quickly responded to the scene at 1000 Atrisco SW, south of Bridge, Gonzales said, activating their cameras on the way.
“When the deputies were approaching the scene, they came into contact with that person fitting that description that was given over radio,” he said. “They engaged their emergency equipment and as they exited their vehicle they tried to make contact with that individual. … They gave him some verbal commands, and he did not comply.”
Instead, Gonzales said, the man ran and jumped a fence into a backyard.
“Our deputies gave chase. They ran through the yard, and somewhere in the backyard that subject who was later identified as Ezekiel Meza … discharged a weapon that he was holding,” Gonzales said. “Our deputies in return fired back numerous times — I don’t know how many times — until they were able to have Meza stop taking this deadly action.”
Body camera video is shaky and dark as the deputies race after Meza, but a building’s security camera provided a clearer picture. In that video, Meza can be seen firing a gun, apparently toward the ground, as he runs. Then deputies returned fire, shooting repeatedly as another muzzle flash can be seen coming from Meza.
A woman who owns the home and was looking out the window after the commotion woke her, told the Journal a similar version of events last week.
The woman said a bullet was embedded in the stucco of her house and that on Tuesday sheriff’s Capt. David Funes confirmed the bullet came from the gun Meza was carrying, a .38-caliber revolver.
Meza has a history of gun and drug charges dating to 1995, according to BCSO. Court records show he was on probation for driving while intoxicated when he was killed.
This was the first shooting by law enforcement in the Albuquerque area this year. However, the shooting death of a New Mexico State Police officer near Deming last week was still fresh on the minds of many.
Gonzales started the news conference with a moment of silence for officer Darian Jarrott, who was killed after pulling over Omar Felix Cueva during a federal operation.
“There are so many people walking out there that are dangerous to the public, at some point we’re going to have to make a decision of holding those people accountable,” Gonzales said. “That’s not just coming from me; that’s coming from the public sentiment.”