A New Mexico police officer, Felipe Hernandez, has been charged with second-degree murder after fatally shooting a grandmother, Teresa Gomez, during a traffic stop.
Bodycam footage shows the officer firing at least three rounds as Gomez drove away, despite not being in a “zone of danger.”
The officer had previously been on administrative leave and had been involved in prior use-of-force incidents. (Trending: Fauci’s COVID Missteps Are Coming Back To Haunt Him)
“There was no necessity for him to use deadly force,” Doña Ana County District Attorney Gerald Byers stated.
“We looked at self-defense. There was no self-defense.”
“From the very beginning of Mr. Hernandez’s interaction with Ms. Gomez, the ability to manage protocol is non-existent,” Byers said.
“His interactions with her, just on a human level, was exceptionally subpar and did not meet the standards that LCPD demands of its officers.”
“Teresa Gomez was not a fleeing felon because she did not present a danger to Officer Hernandez or anyone else,” Byers said.
Gomez’s family has filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit, alleging excessive force and violation of civil rights.
“The Las Cruces Police Department’s lack of internal oversight and supervision has allowed a culture of aggression to develop, promoting an acceptance of unlawful use of deadly force contributing to the preventable death of Teresa Gomez,” the family’s attorney said.
“We take a critical look at training, policy, and equipment after all critical incidents and look for areas of concern that need to be addressed. Any response must be based on objective measures and cannot influence the criminal investigation,” he said.
The family struggles to comprehend her death, describing the officer’s behavior as shocking and unexpected.
“If you’ve seen the video, the beginning – with just how the officer was talking to my mom … for any son, daughter, mother, father, like, it’s hard to see someone, a grown man, talk to your mom like that,” her son Johny Gomez stated.
“We didn’t understand at what point it went wrong because it didn’t seem like it could go wrong,” her sister, Angela Lozano-Gutierrez said. “From, like, everything that happened, it seemed like it was kind of, like, getting to the part where they were just going to let her go.”
“And so, it was just shocking that it ended with her dying,” she added.
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