Defense: Albuquerque officers made split-second decision in fatal shooting of

She has argued that police can’t claim self-defense because they escalated the tension during the standoff by surrounding Boyd with 19 officers, including 10 in tactical gear, and they created the danger by charging Boyd during the failed arrest attempt.

Stone could give no explanation for the fact that neither Sandy nor detective Richard Ingram, who fired the Taser shot, ever produced lapel cam videos. Boyd was reportedly brandishing two pocket knives when the officers arrived on the scene.

Defense attorneys had said that the two officers were following their training and did what a reasonable officer would do in the same situation when James Boyd was fatally shot on March 16, 2014.

Police then detonated a flash bomb near Boyd, who dropped his bag and pulled two knives before Perez and Sandy shot him as he fell to the ground.

Appropriate responses, McGinn said, would have been to tell Boyd to move his camp to a national forest boundary that was a short walk from his illegal campsite, or continue to negotiate with him using crisis intervention techniques.

Pro Tem Judge Neil Candelaria said Tuesday that the state had presented enough evidence in the preliminary hearings to meet the standards for probable cause, and to file murder charges against Officer Dominique Perez and Officer Keith Sandy, who is now retired. Boyd, who authorities said was schizophrenia, died at a hospital after his arm was amputated. “The court will bind the matters over for trial”, Candelaria said. When he finally requested a video from the on-scene Sergeant- eight or nine days later by his recollection-“the video had been cleared and the Boyd encounter wasn’t there”, according to a KRQE report.

With nightfall approaching and after making little progress with Boyd, Weimerskirch said, he came up with a plan to get Boyd into custody. In case the less lethal weapons didn’t work, Sandy would keep his rifle aimed at Boyd, he said. The homeless man’s killing was caught on an officer’s lapel camera and sparked outrage in Albuquerque over what some perceived as unnecessary lethal force. But it was unclear from the testimony if Perez and Sandy also knew the details of Boyd’s mental illness.

His death came amid a wave of police shootings in the city and just before the U.S. Justice Department issued a harsh report into use of excessive force by the Albuquerque Police Department.

“There are officers right now, this very minute, possibly being dispatched to very similar calls (to the Boyd call)”, said Shaun Willoughby, vice president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

The city and the Justice Department later reached an agreement to overhaul policies involving use of force and to appoint a federal monitor to oversee reforms.