On Wednesday, a former police officer was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of a Black man at a gas station in New Mexico in 2022.
Nearly five years after a white police officer in Minneapolis killed George Floyd in May 2020, Las Cruces police officer Brad Lunsford’s jury trial verdict is the most recent in a string of cases that prosecutors have connected to systematic violence by law enforcement against Black people.
White Lunsford had entered a not guilty plea. Jose Coronado, his lawyer, stated that he will urge the judge to check the verdict for legality.
He allegedly shot Presley Eze at close range during a skirmish after police were called by a gas station employee who said that Eze had stolen beer, according to the prosecution. Before being shot, Eze allegedly put his hand on the stun gun of another cop.
The use of lethal force was deemed unreasonable by Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who also mentioned that Lunsford pulled out his service weapon right away and shot Eze in the back of the head.
The decision rendered today reinforces a basic idea: nobody is above the law, not even those who have vowed allegiance to it. of a statement following the verdict’s announcement, Torrez said, “Officer Lunsford’s actions were not just a tragic lapse in judgment; they were an egregious abuse of power that cost Presley Eze his life.”
The maximum penalty for voluntary manslaughter with a firearms enhancement is nine years in prison. Police body camera footage of the altercation, in which Eze was removed from a car by the police and a fight occurred, was used as evidence during the trial.
According to Philip Stinson, a criminal justice professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, precedent from two U.S. Supreme Court decisions from the 1980s determines that the majority of fatal shootings by on-duty police are legally permissible.
Over the past 20 years, 205 nonfederal law enforcement officers have been arrested on criminal charges of homicide or manslaughter, leading to 66 convictions, 27 of which were for manslaughter or homicide, according to records gathered by Stinson, university colleagues, and students through the Police Integrity Research Group.
Reference: New Mexico jury convicts former officer in fatal shooting of Black man at gas station