The Albuquerque Police Department already found by a U.S. Justice Department report to have "too often used deadly force in an unconstitutional manner," has struck again.
Officer accidentally shoots man in neighboring apartment
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
An Albuquerque police officer accidentally discharged his weapon while investigating a burglary early Sunday, striking and injuring a man in a neighboring apartment, police said.
The officer’s service pistol discharged as he climbed into the broken window of a second-floor apartment in the 500 block of Charleston SE about 5 a.m., police spokesman Simon Drobik said.
The round passed through the floor of the apartment and struck a man in the back, Drobik said. The gunshot victim was listed Sunday in stable condition at University of New Mexico Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, he said.
An officer noticed a broken window in the second-floor apartment and climbed into the window with his service weapon drawn when the pistol discharged, Drobik said. The officer was entering the apartment to determine whether anyone was inside.
The accidental shooting comes as Albuquerque police launch a series of reforms mandated by an Oct. 31 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The agreement followed a federal investigation that found APD had a pattern or practice of violating people’s rights through the use of force.
Albuquerque police have 'pattern' of excessive, deadly force, report says
By Eliott C. McLaughlin
(CNN) -- Albuquerque, New Mexico, police officers killed a 19-year-old as he "lay motionless on his back," an unarmed drugstore robber who was walking away from officers and a 25-year-old veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who threatened to shoot himself in the head.
So says the U.S. Justice Department, which on Thursday issued a report lambasting the Albuquerque Police Department for a longstanding history of police brutality and unnecessary deadly force.
The 19-year-old, Andrew Lopez, caught Albuquerque police officers' attention while driving with dim headlights and no taillights; when police tried to pull him over, he led them on a low-speed chase before parking and taking off on foot, the report said.
Five officers gave chase, and when Lopez reached a fence and began to turn around, one of the officers fired three times, hitting Lopez once. The nonlethal shot put Lopez on his back, the report said, and the officer approached him and fired a fourth shot into his chest, killing him.
The report had four major findings:
• The department's officers "too often used deadly force in an unconstitutional manner," and of the 20 fatal police shootings since 2009, most were not constitutional.
Albuquerque police not only use deadly force when there's no imminent threat of bodily harm or death, they also "used deadly force against people who posed a minimal threat, including individuals who posed a threat only to themselves or who were unarmed. Officers also used deadly force in situations where the conduct of the officers heightened the danger and contributed to the need to use force."
• Officers used a "significant amount of force" against people with mental illness and in crisis. "APD's policies, training and supervision are insufficient to ensure that officers encountering people with mental illness or in distress do so in a manner that respects their rights and is safe for all involved."
• Instances of officers using excessive force are "not isolated or sporadic." The pattern of police conduct suggests "systemic deficiencies in oversight, training, and policy. Chief among these deficiencies is the department's failure to implement an objective and rigorous internal accountability system. Force incidents are not properly investigated, documented or addressed with corrective measures."
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This latest shooting shows that the Albuquerque Police Dept. hasn't effectively implemented the changes in its use of force policy called for in the the Justice Department's report.