LCPD officers fatally shot Torres on Sunday, Aug. 21.
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Las Cruces Police are continuing to investigate the sequence of events that led to Sunday’s shooting on Lohman Avenue that resulted in the death of 36-year-old Juan Gabriel Torres. Police spotted the stolen truck then approached the man, who was holding a knife at the time, they said.
The man was transported to a hospital where he later died of his injuries.
Police responded around 3 p.m.to a report of the stolen white Chevy pickup on busy Lohman Avenue, a main east-west artery in Las Cruces.
The incident remains under investigation by Las Cruces Police and the Officer-involved Incident Task Force, which is standard protocol for a use of deadly force incident. They pursued the truck. The officers reportedly called off the pursuit in the eastbound traffic lanes on Lohman above I-25.
At about 4:30 p.m., LCPD officers saw the white pickup as it drove by the initial crime scene, according to a Las Cruces Police Department news release.
The shooting happened near the Pan American Center, where thousands gathered Sunday for the funeral of Hatch officer Jose Chavez, who authorities say was fatally shot by an OH fugitive.
The officer-involved shooting took place just as the funeral of Hatch (NM) Officer Jose Chavez was taking place in Las Cruces.
Montoya said the officers were carrying Tasers and that video from a body-worn camera would be released at a later date. Chavez was shot and killed during a traffic stop. The shooting, recorded and posted on Facebook, occurred as a funeral for a recently slain police officer was ending nearby. In the footage, three police officers surround the man, who appears to be walking away from them; shots are fired and he collapses to the ground.
No officers were injured during the incident, police said.
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– This is a developing story.
