Commentary:
Last Tuesday, hours after a Las Cruces police Officer shot a civilian, New Mexico Attorney-General Raul Torrez indicted Officer Brad Lunsford for voluntary manslaughter in shooting death of Presley Eze in 2022.
Eze took a beer from a gas station without paying for it, and allegedly mocked the gas station attendant, who called police. When Eze refused to identify himself, Lunsford and another officer pulled him out of the car. Eze resisted being handcuffed. In the ensuing fight, Mr. Eze was doing pretty well. But then, with Eze on the ground, but grabbing hold of one officer’s taser, Lunsford shot Eze in the back of the head.
A jury will decide whether this qualifies as voluntary manslaughter.
At first blush, charging Mr. Lunsford seems the right call, particularly given a recent change in the jury instructions regarding justifiable homicide by police. (Too. The charge is voluntary manslaughter, not 2nd degree murder.)
But I won’t try to guess how I’d vote if I were a juror. That’s a different standard, and I haven’t seen/heard all the evidence.
You charge someone when guilt of the legal offense looks more likely than not that he or she committed the legal offense and should be tried. Conviction requires certainty beyond a reasonable doubt.
These were split-second decisions. A bystander’s video shows Eze and the cops on the ground, Eze apparently facing downward but but still struggling – and holding that taser. Prosecutors note that he didn’t use the taser. Defendant will say that Eze was attempting to use it – threatening to disable Lunsford instantly, which would have allowed Eze to grab Lunsford’s gun. The fight looks two on one; but the City will say that Eze falling on top of the second officer put that officer out of the fight with a concussion. This is not Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd.
Some folks wonder why this took so long, or wonder why Attorney-General Raul Torrez hasn’t charged the officer who shot Amelia Baca, who wasn’t even fighting with him. Others will say Exe fighting with the cops means don’t second-guess them.
I’m more interested in what happened inside LCPD and our city government. I believe, based on confidential sources, that the city’s lawyers had told the city manager that the City could have significant liability in the lawsuit brought by Eze’s family. Perhaps by coincidence, both the city attorney and the city’s outside lawyer were gone soon afterward. (Litigation counsel was elevated to U.S. Magistrate Judge.) City Attorney Jennifer Vega-Brown’s departure surprised her friends and associates, some of whom said her frankness about this case was a cause. A long, strange silence ensued.
The Eze case is another reason we must improve police accountability – with or without a criminal conviction. Jared Cosper may evade criminal charges for shooting Amelia Baca, because she was holding two knives pointed at the ground, and they’re “deadly weapons.” Still, no experienced law officer I’ve shown that video to feels at all comfortable with Cosper’s conduct. And better preparation could have avoided the Valenzuela choking.
With Tuesday’s shooting, I credit Interim Police Chief Story for holding a press conference less than 12 hours after the shooting, to share at least some information with the public. We likely won’t see video until all witnesses have been interviewed, so no witnesses are influenced by those videos, perhaps unconsciously.
Our police do much right; but Las Cruces needs civilian help.
Peter Goodman's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.