ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Deadly police encounters in New York and Missouri resulted in no charges against the officers recently amid closed-door grand jury proceedings that infuriated some members of the public. Faced with a similar decision for a high-profile police shooting in New Mexico, the top prosecutor in Albuquerque took an entirely different approach.
The Albuquerque district attorney brought murder charges Monday against two officers who shot a mentally ill homeless man during a standoff last year, bypassing a grand jury and taking the case before a judge who will decide at a public hearing whether the case should move forward.
“Unlike Ferguson and unlike in New York City, we’re going to know. The public is going to have that information,” District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said. “I think officer-involved shooting cases are important around the country where we want to share all that information with the public.”
The March shooting death of 38-year-old James Boyd led to violent protests and helped lead to a major federal-ordered overhaul of the Albuquerque Police Department amid a rash of police shootings over the last five years.
It also came during a year when police tactics came under intense scrutiny nationwide, fueled by the fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, and the chokehold death of another unarmed man in New York City. Grand juries declined to charge officers in those cases, leading to large protests.