Mayor calls APD shooting ‘horrific … unsettling’ (includes link to video)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | March 25, 2014 | Dan McKay and Nicole Perez

[CedarDave]

Mayor Richard Berry called it “horrific” and “unsettling.”

Several city councilors – on both sides of the aisle – said they were disturbed by what they saw.

The American Civil Liberties Union, a former district judge and the governor also weighed in.

Each called for a thorough, independent investigation into the Albuquerque Police Department’s shooting of a mentally ill homeless man, James M. Boyd, who was caught illegally camping in the Sandia foothills last week.

Video released by APD on Friday showed officers firing at the man, who was armed with two knives but appeared to be turning away from officers when shots rang out.

Debate over the shooting didn’t end at the New Mexico line, either, as the video attracted national attention. Viewers from across the nation commented on the video, which was picked up by the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News and other news organizations.

“I’ve seen the portion of video that the public has seen,” Berry said in an interview on Monday. “It’s horrific. It’s unsettling.”

Berry said the U.S. Department of Justice ought to look at the shooting and his administration has already offered to send over the information.

Federal investigators announced in November 2012 that they are examining whether APD has a pattern or practice of violating people’s civil rights, specifically through the use of force. Justice Department officials will be in Albuquerque on Wednesday to meet with community activists, who requested the meeting after the Boyd shooting.

“I think this is a circumstance they need to take a look at and make a determination on their side,” Berry said.

Justice Department officials have told the city to finish its investigation and forward its results.

[CedarDave]

Direct link to video (very graphic): Police helmet cam: Camper turning from officers when shot

In addition to the helmet cam, a neighbor captured it on his video. The videos are so graphic and show so clearly how he was shot, that even Republican supporters of the police were shocked by what they saw and called for a DOJ investigation.

Boyd was mentally disturbed but also had a criminal record and violence against police. In this incident he was armed only with two knives but police shot him with at least five rounds of ammo. He was declared dead at the hospital.

[CedarDave]

Portions of the video have been all over the local news outlets but they have all deleted the actual shooting. This one from the helmet cam is nearly 4-minutes long.

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[andyk]

Savages. Everything goes to place all burden of risk on citizens.

[MNDude]

wow, just watched the video and that guy was murdered in cold blood. I hope someone does hard time for this.

[CedarDave]

"Daily Mail" story - with video. Not subscription restricted.

Police accused of excessive force after firing six bullets, two stun gun rounds, a bean bag and releasing a K9 unit on mentally ill man with a knife who later died

[Labyrinthos]

There is no other name for that than murder. All three cops (and any other cop that is part of the blue wall of silence) ought to spend the rest of their lives in prison with the general prison population. If not for the fact that I am pro-life, I would advocate the death penalty for these puke cowards.

[leapfrog0202]

To make it worse, one of the officers involved has a very checkered history and was fired by the NM State Police just before being hired by the APD.

The (crooked in my opinion) DA in Albuquerque declined to prosecute when he was fired for wrongdoing. Why they hired this guy I have no clue and the local news said originally it was decided ‘he would never carry a gun while employed with APD’, but that quickly changed.

http://www.abqjournal.com/371432/news/state-police-fired-cop-in-foothills-shooting-in-2007.html

[HiTech RedNeck]

The Land of Enscandalment huh.

[Starstruck]

While attacking Berry and Eden we should remember that Eden has not had time to change a culture that was existing during the Ray Schultz tenure.

This was one of the comments. Shouldn't "don't be murdering anyone or you're going to jail" be enough to change the culture?

[556x45]

“...“horrific” and “unsettling.” Several city councilors – on both sides of the aisle – said they were disturbed by what they saw.”

Really? Where have these people been for the last almost decade? Any entity that kills dogs for the slimmest of reasons and uses kiddie/pregnant woman targets for practice is by all measures is out of control, complete out of control. There’s just no political will to rein in the badged mob.

[OneWingedShark]

If not for the fact that I am pro-life, I would advocate the death penalty for these puke cowards.

Pro-life does not necessitate the opposition to capital punishment any more than pacifism does for self-defense. In fact, I argue that it is less humane to imprison someone for 20 years than to kill them as such long sentences are depriving them of life in all but the most literal/technical terms. (Consider that if someone had a newborn child and was convicted to 20 years that child would be a fully grown adult before they saw freedom again, this is regardless of the guilt/innocence or justness/legitimacy of the law itself.)

Then there is our current societal deprivation of rights to those who have served their sentence — instead of the serving of their sentence wiping the slate clean, they are forever paying for their crime.

[sargon]

wow, just watched the video and that guy was murdered in cold blood. I hope someone does hard time for this.

Well, you see, the guy was well known to have been an expert knife-thrower. Why, he could have assassinated a person from several yards away with one good toss! Haven't you seen Desperado?

Gunning this individual down as he turned away was the ONLY response that could protect the public well-armed police.</sarc>

[fullchroma]

Police departments are increasingly militarized with inadequate screening of employment or training in judgment and zero moral grounding. I don’t recognize my country.

[NVDave]

Let’s take bets on how long until the holster-sniffers are here, justifying how this was a “good shoot” and that the homeless guy was worthy of being shot because he had knives in his hand vs. a half-dozen men with rifles trained on him, a K-9 set loose and flash-bangs being lobbed onto him.

[Breto]

People think the police are their friends and protectorate.... They are not. They are loyal to the union and government, the citizens are just objects and when the time comes they will be the enforcers of totalitarianism.

[backwoods-engineer]

Officer Safety sez: when in doubt, blow their brains out!

[DocJhn]

Mayor to APD lower homeless rate at any cost>

[leapfrog0202]

Especially when it comes to APD. They have had so many shootings in which surviving family members received large settlements and rarely have the officers been relieved of duty.

APD has a new police chief that was asked in a press conference if he felt this latest shooting, of the homeless man, was justified and he said yes.

He evidently got taken to the woodshed by the Mayor because on the next night’s news the new chief was saying “he was caught off guard” by the question and shouldn’t have said something that quickly and no, it doesn’t appear to be justified.

The Justice Dept. has been asked to review it and it wasn’t that long ago that the Justice Dept. did an in-depth investigation of APD’s use of force. In fact, I don’t believe the final paperwork on that has been delivered. Could be wrong on that though.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/November/12-crt-1415.html

[BuffaloJack]

The man was murdered.
What I saw was that he bent down to retrieve his camping gear, that probably included a knife and other eating utensils.
Why, when he was down and obviously not moving, did they have to put more bullets into him?

If these 3 murderers don’t get the death penalty then there is no justice, just an out of control police state.

[pallis]

Notice how frightened those cops were. They were past thinking rationally, and that mentally ill man with a violent history could just as easily had been someone’s grandfather whittling on a stick with a pocket knife. They don’t care who they murder once they are afraid.