By Nakayla McClelland
Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
GRANT COUNTY, N.M. — In a video posted to Facebook on Monday, deputy Alejandro Gomez of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office asked to hold a small rabbit found along a dirt road near Hachita. A fellow deputy, who was holding the animal, refused to hand it over — believing Gomez would kill it — before Gomez pointed his Taser at the deputy and said, “Give it to me right now.”
The deputy handed Gomez the bunny and told him, “Don’t throw it,” asking him to “swear on your kids” that he wouldn’t. In the video, which has over 30,000 views, Gomez smiled toward the camera and threw the rabbit against the deputy’s patrol vehicle. The other deputy later told New Mexico State Police that the rabbit was fatally injured, and he killed it so “it would not suffer.”
Throughout the one-minute video, taken in August 2024, a Grant County Sheriff’s Office sergeant and corporal laughed hysterically. State Police said the video was recorded by the sergeant on his cellphone.
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Gomez, 27, was placed on paid leave after the incident and is charged with four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon upon a peace officer and one count of extreme cruelty to animals, which is a fourth-degree felony.
Gomez will remain on leave until the case is resolved, according to Lt. Cody Copper, public information officer for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.
The sergeant and corporal who witnessed the rabbit killing and Gomez pointing his weapon at the deputy “failed to intervene as required by New Mexico Statute,” according to State Police. Neither supervisor was placed on leave, and both are still employed at the sheriff’s office.
“We don’t think he did anything wrong, obviously,” Gary Mitchell, Gomez’s attorney, said Thursday. “We’re waiting to see what evidence the state has. ... But it sounds like an inner-office situation that should not have turned into a criminal case.”
New Mexico State Police are investigating the case.
On Aug. 16, 2024 , Gomez, another deputy, a sergeant and a corporal were working an overnight shift near Hachita , a town in Grant County in the southwestern part of the state, when they came upon the baby rabbit while driving along a dirt road, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Silver City Magistrate Court on Feb. 14 .
The group stopped because the rabbit was in the middle of the road and blocking the men from driving farther in their patrol vehicles. The affidavit states that one deputy got out of his vehicle and walked near the rabbit to try to get it off the roadway. When the rabbit did not leave, he picked it up in an attempt to move it.
Gomez asked to hold the rabbit, but the deputy “told him no because he felt that Deputy Gomez would hurt the animal,” according to the affidavit. The deputy later told State Police he “believed that if he just set the animal loose, Deputy Gomez would be able to pick it up and hurt it.”
As the deputy put down the rabbit, Gomez drew his Taser from his holster and pointed it at him before shouting, “Give it to me right now” — shown in the video that circulated on social media. The deputy, in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, gave Gomez the bunny and told him, “Don’t throw it.”
“Deputy Gomez threw the animal with such force that it fatally wounded the animal,” according to the affidavit. “A huge thud was heard as it struck the side of the patrol vehicle.”
The other deputy told State Police that he killed the animal so “it would not suffer,” the affidavit states.
The deputy reported the incident and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office conducted an internal investigation that resulted in “little or no action being taken against the deputies or supervisors involved,” according to the affidavit.
This was not the first incident that occurred between Gomez and the other deputy, the affidavit states. On Aug. 5 , days before the rabbit incident, Gomez pointed his Taser at the deputy after he chased Gomez when he took his phone.
Then, a few hours after Gomez allegedly threw the rabbit at a patrol vehicle, he pointed his gun at the deputy behind his back and claimed he was “only testing his duty-mounted light,” according to the affidavit.
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