After a almost two-week preliminary hearing, Judge Neil Candelaria said there was probable cause for a murder case to proceed against Officer Dominique Perez and former Detective Keith Sandy.
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Perez and Sandy shot Boyd after a failed arrest attempt on a steep slope east of Tramway, where he had been camping illegally and pulled knives on two responding officers who drew their weapons on him. Some say the James Boyd video showed the homeless man surrendering to the cops before being shot in the back.
“God forbid that we have a police officer who needs to be protected by a fellow officer and that police officer hesitates because he’s anxious about the government turning around and prosecuting him”, said Defense Attorney Sam Bregman.
For the first time in at least 50 years, an Albuquerque police officer will face murder charges for an on-duty shooting.
An analysis by Stinson and the Washington Post found that only 11 of 54 officers charged with murder or manslaughter over the past decade have been convicted. Boyd can be seen on the videotape with knives, but critics have maintained he posed no serious threat to the officers. Since they could not subdue Boyd with “less lethal” means, they were eventually forced to shoot him. Sgt.
Special Prosecutor Randi McGinn countered that Perez and Sandy created the danger by coming to the scene with the intent of attacking Boyd during a “paramilitary response”.
The department was under scrutiny for more than 40 police shootings since 2010.
Defense lawyers did not immediately comment after the ruling by Candelaria.
The footage drew national attention to the Albuquerque Police Department, which was being investigated at the time by the U.S. Justice Department over officers’ use of force, the wire service said. Boyd died at a hospital after his arm was amputated.
“No one should be above the law and no one should be beneath its protection”, McGinn said in an interview. When she questioned APD lead investigator Detective Geoffrey Stone, he admitted that though “I do typically try to interview [officers accused of wrongdoing] right away”-in order to keep them from coordinating their stories-he waited two days to talk to Sandy and Perez”. But it was unclear from the testimony if Perez and Sandy also knew the details of Boyd’s mental illness. “He also testifies that police officers who give inaccurate accounts of shootings are really just experiencing memory loss”.
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Ginger’s appointment was part of an agreement the city made with the DOJ to carry out the overhaul and bring wide-ranging reforms to the force, an initiative that stems from a federal investigation into the excessive use of force by the city’s police. Jim Fox praised Perez for being “very calm under fire [!]” and said that, “he made great decisions”.
