Two Albuquerque police officers have been charged with murder in the March killing of a homeless camper, a shooting that generated sometimes violent protests around the city and sparked a federal investigation, prosecutors said Monday.
Swat member Dominique Perez and former Detective Keith Sandy will each face a single count of open murder in the death of 38-year-old James Boyd, second district attorney Kari Brandenburg said. Open murder allows prosecutors to pursue either first-degree or second-degree murder charges.
Police said Perez and Sandy fatally shot Boyd, who was holding a knife, during an hourslong standoff in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. Video from an officer’s helmet camera showed Boyd, who had struggled with mental illness, appearing to surrender when officers opened fire.
Sam Bregman, lawyer for Sandy, said the decision was “unjustified” and said Sandy did nothing wrong. “To the contrary, he followed his training and probably saved his fellow officer’s life,” Bregman said.
Luis Robles, an attorney for Perez, said, “Sadly, this day has come. Regardless, I am confident that the facts will vindicate Officer Perez’s actions in this case.”
Brandenburg said in a statement that the date for a preliminary hearing for the two has not yet been set.
The Boyd shooting – and more than three dozen other police shootings since 2010 – sparked a series of protests, including one that forced authorities to fire teargas canisters at violent demonstrators and another that shut down a city council meeting.
The FBI is investigating the shooting, but federal authorities have not said if officers will face federal charges.
City officials recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to revamp its police agency after a harsh report over excessive force. Under the agreement, Albuquerque police must provide better training for officers and dismantle troubled units.
MEANWHILE, Reagan Ali reports for Counter Current News that Cleveland's Public Safety Department Official has resigned after the police killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, saying he is "no longer proud" to work for the city:
The City of Cleveland’s fiscal manager for the Public Safety Department has just issued his resignation, citing his inability to work for a city that refuses to prosecute Officer Timothy Loehmann. Loehmann fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice on Nov. 22 of last year.
Tamir had been “armed” only with a toy BB-gun, and had never aimed it at the officer who virtually shot him on sight, in spite of the 911 caller stating repeatedly that Rice was a juvenile and that the “gun” was likely a toy.
In a resignation letter obtained by the Northeast Ohio Media Group, dated Dec. 17, former fiscal manager Shawn Gidley explained that he once believed that his job “was making the City of Cleveland a better place to live.”
Read the full text of the letter here.
Gidley explains that the shooting of Tamir Rice, and the refusal of the City of Cleveland to prosecute him, as well as “years of mismanagement, poor leadership and improper training in the Public Safety Department” led to his disillusionment with the city administration and have “ended with a child paying the ultimate price.”
The shooting death of Tamir Rice remains under investigation. All of this comes on the heels of a Department of Justice report that identified the Cleveland Police Department as thoroughly corrupt, and marked by the routine use of excessive force.
“The Department of Public Safety and the City of Cleveland is no longer an employer for which I am proud to work,” Gidley said in parting. “It does not provide the leadership that the residents of Cleveland deserve.”
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