Former Las Cruces police officer Brad Lunsford was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a Black man, Presley Eze, during a confrontation at a New Mexico gas station in 2022. Lunsford, who is white, shot Eze at point-blank range after responding to a 911 call reporting a beer theft. The use of deadly force was deemed unreasonable by the Attorney General, and Lunsford’s actions were described as an abuse of power. The verdict of voluntary manslaughter with a firearms enhancement carries a possible sentence of up to nine years in prison.
Despite the conviction, criminal justice professor Philip Stinson explained that obtaining a conviction in cases involving on-duty police officers is challenging due to jurors being reluctant to second-guess split-second decisions made in potentially violent encounters. Over the past 20 years, only 66 out of 205 nonfederal law enforcement officers arrested for homicide or manslaughter have been convicted, with lesser offenses being common.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez described the killing of Eze as a tragedy resulting from poor police tactics and an unjustifiable use of force. The case is seen as an example of systemic brutality against Black people by law enforcement, following the killing of George Floyd in 2020. The guilty verdict in Lunsford’s case reaffirms the principle that no one, not even police officers, is above the law.
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