By Uriel J. Garcia
The Santa Fe New Mexican
SANTE FE, N.M. — The reports have been eye-popping. A deputy sheriff in Texas shot 15 times while fueling up his patrol car. A police lieutenant in Illinois gunned down during a routine investigation. A Louisiana state trooper fatally shot with a sawed-off shotgun by a motorist he stopped to assist. All in the course of a few days.
While the number of police officers fatally shot in the line of duty is down this year, the timing of this latest string of ambush-style killings — coming as the public and prosecutors have put increased scrutiny on police for their own use of deadly force — has law enforcement officials in New Mexico and across the country on edge.
Last week, the Cleveland, Ohio, police department warned its officers of a tip that dirt bike riders had plans to ambush them.
“I think there is a heightened awareness among officers of the trend that is going on right now,” said New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas, who is among those urging enhanced penalties against criminals who target police.
People who kill officers should be federally prosecuted, he said, and those convicted should be given the death penalty.
Kassetas and other New Mexico law enforcement officials said highly publicized shootings in various states have highlighted the dangers those in uniform face every day. He noted that his officers, who usually patrol New Mexico’s rural areas, always run the risk of being harmed because they normally are out on their own, without a partner.
Concerned police chiefs and sheriffs in New Mexico have asked their patrol officers to be extra cautious when they pull over motorists. Some law enforcement officials feel that an anti-police sentiment has grown, fed by efforts such as the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which was sparked in part by the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African-American who was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo.
State Rep. William “Bill” Rehm, R-Albuquerque, a retired police officer, said last week he is considering sponsoring legislation to address the issue during the 30-day legislative session that starts in January. The bill would call for an expansion of the state’s hate-crime law to include attacks on police officers. But Rehm said he is pessimistic that such a proposal would become law in New Mexico.
During a recent luncheon in Albuquerque, U.S. Marshal Conrad Candelaria told a room full of law enforcement authorities and elected officials that attacking a police officer should be considered a federal hate crime.
Candelaria, the federal marshal for the District of New Mexico since 2010, said police officers “are attacked and killed just because they wear a badge,” the Albuquerque Journal reported. “That is a hate crime.”
Since he made his comments late last month, at least two police officers have been fatally shot. In Texas, Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth was shot 15 times in the back at a gas station as he filled up his patrol car on Aug. 28. A 30-year-old Houston man was arrested in connection with the case. In Illinois, Fox Lake Police Department Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, 52, was fatally shot as he chased three suspects Sept. 1. The men fled, triggering a massive manhunt.
In New Mexico, Rio Rancho Officer Gregg “Nigel” Benner was fatally shot after he attempted to pull over a vehicle on Memorial Day. Andrew Romero, 28, who has a long criminal history, including a manslaughter conviction, has been charged in connection to Benner’s killing. In October 2013, Christopher Chase, 35, who had “Cop Killer” tattooed across his knuckles, shot at three Albuquerque officers and a Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy, who were all injured. Chase, dressed in body armor and carrying an assault rifle, had told his neighbors to call the police because he was waiting for them. After shooting at one of the officers, Chase stole a patrol car and led the officers on a 16-mile pursuit through Albuquerque before police killed him.
But after the killings last December of two New York City police officers by a man who wrote on a social-media profile that he had planned to kill police, national groups reignited calls for federal lawmakers to expand the federal hate-crimes law to include attacks on police officers.
The Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks officers’ deaths so their names can be enshrined on a Washington, D.C., memorial, has reported a 24 percent decline in police slayings through the first week of September compared to the same period last year. Through Sept. 10, a total of 26 officers had been fatally shot in the line of duty, down from 34 a year earlier. There was a total of 48 officers who were killed by guns last year. In the past decade, 2011 had the most officers fatally shot, with 73.
The perception that there’s a wave of anti-police sentiment is tied to an increased availability of videos showing officers shooting and killing people, said Philip Stinson, a criminology professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. The videos have raised awareness of police practices that have been going on for a long time, and they have drawn vocal responses, he said.
“There’s more organized voices, there’s more organized activism,” Stinson said, “but I don’t think it equates to a trend in an increase of violence against police officers.”
At a Washington, D.C., news conference last week, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch condemned “these recent and brutal police shootings.”
“It is a sad fact now that no one is safe,” she said. “This wide violence against all of us — regardless of what uniform any of us wear — has to end.”
In Albuquerque, police officers have been under scrutiny in recent years for having one of the nation’s highest rates of police shootings. Widespread criticism of the Albuquerque Police Department erupted last year after the release of video showing two officers shooting and killing James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless man, during a confrontation in the city’s foothills. The video prompted protests and demands for reform of police training. Some critics have voiced concerns that New Mexico officers aren’t adequately trained to de-escalate potentially violent situations.
Soon after Boyd’s death, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report saying Albuquerque officers had a pattern of using unnecessary and, in some cases, deadly force. The department is now under the supervision of an independent monitor and the courts.
The officers in the Boyd case, Dominique Perez and Keith Sandy, face second-degree murder charges in connection with the incident. A state district judge ruled last month that there is sufficient evidence to put the officers on trial. Perez and Sandy have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The public outcry over officer-involved shootings, along with the increasing availability of video evidence — often taken right from the police officer’s lapel or dashboard camera — has put increased pressure on prosecutors to charge officers with wrongful killings, Stinson said. According to his research, an average of 5.4 police officers were charged each year over the last decade with wrongfully shooting and killing someone. So far in 2015, a dozen officers have been charged with such offenses, he said. That’s not including six Baltimore officers charged in the killing of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was arrested in April and died while in custody, because Gray was not shot.
Though prosecutions may be up, winning convictions against police officers is still difficult because juries often don’t want to second-guess the difficult decisions officers have to make in the line of duty, Stinson said.
Even so, the increase in prosecutions has some officers worried about doing their jobs, officials say. After Perez and Sandy were charged, Albuquerque’s police union vice president, Shaun Willoughby, said officers were worried about also being charged if they had to use their firearms.
In Santa Fe, some of the four officers who fatally shot a 35-year-old man Aug. 25 have so far refused to give statements on the incident to state police investigators, according to District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco. The officers were from three agencies, including the Santa Fe city and county departments and the state police.
After state police complete the investigation into Mora resident Marvin Maestas’ death, Pacheco will present the case to a grand jury, which will decide if the shooting was justified.
“Right now, it’s a very difficult time for law enforcement,” Pacheco said. “Law enforcement officers are very nervous about what happens to them now.”
Celina Espinoza, a spokeswoman with the Albuquerque department, said officers there are trying to connect with the community “so people can see that officers are humans, too.” She said the recent shootings of police have affected the department.
“What’s going on nationally — that officers are becoming a target of random violence — takes a toll on our department,” she said.
Santa Fe police Lt. Andrea Dobyns said last week, “Every single day our officers put their lives on the line to serve and protect our community. When tragedies such as these occur, people are reminded of the dangers police face every day.”
She said Santa Fe police interim Chief Patrick Gallagher told officers in a staff meeting last week that they should keep Deputy Goforth in their minds to remind them to always stay vigilant “while maintaining a professional demeanor.”
Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia said he has talked with individual deputies about recent police shootings and during staff briefings tells his deputies to be extra careful while on patrol.
“Is there a war against cops now? I don’t know,” Garcia said. “But I always say we’re never at war with our citizens.”
In Las Cruces, police spokesman Danny Trujillo said that in the wake of recent police shootings elsewhere, officers have been told to “watch their six,” a phrase used by some officers meaning to watch their backs.
Most of the officers killed this year died in the course of routine police work. But cases such as the deaths of Goforth, the Texas deputy, and the New York City police officers garnered national attention. The police officer killings have prompted a social-media campaign supporting law enforcement officials, with the hashtag #BlueLivesMatter.
In Santa Fe, the police department’s Facebook profile has been sharing news from the recent officer killings and expressing condolences for the officers’ families.
“Remember to hug your loved ones every time you put on your uniform and walk out the door to protect and serve your community,” a recent Facebook posting said, with a link to a news article about Goforth’s killing.
Copyright 2015 The Santa Fe New Mexican