Albuquerque Police Shootings and the Department of Justice - Updated

Updated broken links in chart.  Added some commentary 9/24/2014.

The Department of Justice has instituted a study of the Albuquerque Police Department's actions and methods in response to the police shootings over the last few years.  In spite of what you may think after listening to the anti-police sentiment, the events as reported by the news media overwhelmingly suggest that the actions taken by the police were justified.  In all of the instances in 2010 and 2011, as reported by the news media, the police shooting victims were either armed or struggled with the police officers for their guns.  The overwhelming conclusion is that it is very dangerous to confront a police officer with a weapon.

The issue that the DOJ is investigating is that the Albuquerque Police Department has shot, and in many instances killed, several suspects over the last few years.  Some Albuquerque citizens have alleged that some of the shootings were improper.

In spite of the negative opinions of some Albuquerque citizens, the DOJ will discover the same as I did when I went over the reports of police shootings from January, 2010 through the end of 2011.  They will find that almost all of  the incidents involved either suspects with weapons or suspects grappling with officers for their weapons.  Some of the suspects' families allege otherwise but grand juries, composed of citizens of Albuquerque, have cleared the officers involved.

The data in this new post was originally posted in response to the three city councilors who tried to force the city to request a DOJ intervention in the Albuquerque police shooting scandal in 2012, an effort that was stopped by a veto by Mayor Berry.

What all of us non-officers might ask is whether there was justification for deadly force.  Here we have to trust our system.  We have police internal affairs boards, citizen review panels, and an independent judge who oversee all of the actions of out police department.  Add to that the fact that every police department in the US is subject to review by the DOJ and there is little to fear that justice will not be served.  On TV we see actors avoiding the use of deadly force but real police officers have their life on the line and have to try to enforce the laws without being killed.  The difference in perception may be the reason that there has been an outcry over police shootings.

Tabulated below are the facts as reported by various news organizations.  The facts cited below are not the same as the data reviewed by the internal affairs boards, grand juries, independent judges, and DOJ; they have better and more complete data.  But the data shows officers faced with a life-threatening situation who had to make a shoot or be killed decision in seconds.  These officers deserve our support.  That is not to say that a DOJ review is a bad thing.  The facts as reported in the news media are shown below.  Note that I removed the officer names to avoid additional pressure on them.  Also, most of the hyperlinks are to TV News.  If you have a subscription to the Albuquerque Journal, there are additional citations in that publication but they are not available w/o a subscription.  For this reason, they are not cited as often but I spent an entire day going through their archives to get the data and then searched the web for alternate sources.  The Journal remains an excellent source although some reporters have an anti-police bias.

2010 shootings.

No	Date	Victim Name	Weapon Y/N	Remarks
1	1/9/2010	Aaron Renfro	Y	ABQ Journal Link
2	1/13/2010	Kenneth Ellis	Y	ABQ Journal Story  This story is tragic because the victim was a veteran and was only threatening himself.  On the other hand, his open brandishing of a weapon did justify police involvement.  It actually sounds like the officer who shot him may have fired by mistake.
3	1/29/2010	Wayne Cordova	?	ABQ Journal Story Initial reports reported that Cordova had something wrapped around his hand.  ABQ Journal story in archives.
4	3/30/2010	Mickey Owings	N	Suspect rammed police with stolen automobile.  ABQ Journal Story   in archives.  Link includes video.
5	4/14/2010	Benjamin Marquez	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings.  Marquez was armed and high on methamphetamine.
6	6/10/2010	Chris Hinz	Y	ABQ Journal Article This link covers several shootings.  Suspect was armed.
7	6/15/2010	Julian Calbert	Y	ABQ Journal Article This link covers several shootings.  Suspect was armed with a knife and reportedly attacked officer.  Suspect was also involved in the abduction of two women.
8	7/28/2010	Len Fuentes	Y	ABQ Journal Article This link covers several shootings.  Suspect was armed with a knife and attacked officers.
9	8/18/2010	Enrique Carrasco	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings.  Suspect was armed with a knife and attacked officers.  Thorough the officer shot Carrasco three times in the back, it was reported(ABQ Journal Link) that the officer was cleared by Grand Jury
10	9/14/2010	Chandler Barr	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings.  Suspect survived and was armed with a butter knife and attacked the officer.  Officer cleared by Grand Jury per ABQ Journal Link
11	10/19/2010	Daniel Gonzales	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings.  Man shot in Tucumcari after APD SWAT called out by State Police. Man was reportedly armed
12	10/31/2010	Alexi Sinkevitch	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings. 2 year veteran police officer shot Mr. Sinkevitch who was carrying an assault rifle.  ABQ Journal Link reported that the gun was unloaded but pointed at police officers.
14	3/4/2010	Unknown	?	Officer fired at but missed car

2011 shootings:

No	Date	Victim Name	Weapon Y/N	Remarks
1	2/10/11	Jacob Mitschelen	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings. Reports said that Mitschelen was shot in back.
2	3/22/2011	Jerry Perea	N	ABQ Journal Story Perea died after being tasered by officers.  Man was high on Meth and obese.
3	4/12/2011	Chris Torres	?	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings. Reports indicated that Torres wrestled with second detective over weapon and was shot by Brown.  Family members denied this.  Torres was shot in the back and the city settled a wrongful death suit for several million dollars.
4	5/11/2011	Alan Gomez	?	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings. Gomez had hostages and was reported to be armed.  When shot was not carrying gun but officer believed that he was carrying a weapon.  No object was found near the body.
5	6/5/2011	Raymond Grey Garcia	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings. Suspect was armed and attacked officers.
6	6/27/2011	Orlando Paisano	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings. Lujan shot Paisano after being attacked with 15 inch bayonet.
7	8/31/2011	Michael Marquez	Y	ABQ Journal Story This link covers several shootings.  Shot by APD officer  after cycling a round in a concealed AK47.