Protesters banded together in the City Council chambers Monday, calling for the Department of Justice to investigate alleged APD misconduct in a series of 20 police shootings in the last 20 months, 14 of which have been fatal.
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry vetoed a City Council resolution last month that asked for a DOJ investigation, and the City Council failed to override the veto at a Sept. 7 council meeting. During Monday night’s council meeting, Rey Garduño, district six’s city councilor, proposed a new resolution in favor of a DOJ investigation.
The resolution passed unanimously on Monday night.
Activist Clarence Watley called for justice for all of Albuquerque.
“We need a new Martin Luther King,” she said. “Nobody wants their family members shot, not in the heights, not in the valley, not in Nob Hill; never in this city should that happen.”
Jewel Hall, president of the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Center Task Force on Social Justice for Public Safety, a group advocating for a DOJ investigation, said APD needs to be held accountable.
“Having the justice department investigate would send a powerful message that Albuquerque is a city run by officials with nothing to hide,” she said.
APD Deputy Chief Allen Banks said the department does all it can to make sure officers are held accountable, but he said an outside investigation by the DOJ isn’t required.
“We don’t feel like that is necessary,” he said. “We’ve been doing (investigations) for many years, whether it’s discipline or exoneration. We are making sure an investigation is done in each of these cases. It’s thorough, it’s accurate, and we decide at that point whether there is going to be discipline or not.”
Banks said the public often fails to realize the difficult situations in which officers are placed, and said officers handle situations to the best of their ability and training.
“It is a dangerous job,” he said. “Officers have to live with this for the rest of their lives. They don’t wake up every day saying ‘I need to go out and shoot somebody.’ They are protecting the citizens of Albuquerque, and, unfortunately, deadly force situations are encountered and someone can end up being hurt as a result, but this affects everyone.”
Banks said investigations at APD are conducted by a task force of multiple agencies including the District Attorney’s Office and an independent review officer to ensure there is no bias when addressing issues of possible officer misconduct.
Kristine Poteet, 11, and 8-year-old Alegra Scarborough read a poem during the public comment section of the council meeting.
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“We raise up our voices in voice to mourn the 13 husbands, fathers, sons, grandsons felled by the APD, keepers of the peace,” they said. “They didn’t have to die,”
Poteet said the issue is personal to her.
“I personally know someone that was shot,” she said. “Tony Lujan. I saw him at my best friend’s house every time I went there. He died because a cop shot him.”
Former overseas law officer Robert Encinio’s brother-in-law, Kenneth Ellis III, was killed in a January 2010 incident with APD that is currently under investigation by a grand jury.
“I think there are some individuals that are bending and bypassing the law because of their position in society,” Encinio said.
“Individuals in high ranks are too afraid to hold their peers and subordinates accountable.”
Ellis’ father, Kenneth Guy Ellis Jr., said his son had served in the army and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. He said his son was stopped at a checkpoint where police were looking for stolen vehicles.
“They escalated the situation instead of de-escalating,” Ellis Jr. said. “They set up a perimeter, and he held a gun to his head to stop them from beating the hell out of him like they did before. They can’t just arrest people and take them in; they have to rough them up.”
He said APD is quick to shoot and slow to listen.
“That was a call for help, not a call to be killed,” he said.
“They forget they are supposed to serve and protect the public. He got his hip blown off and his battle buddy blown up all over him. He lost half his squad in Baghdad. He needed help.”
Ellis Jr. said he is angry at the way the case has been handled.
“They fabricated the whole scenario … they present this whole thing to the media as the gospel, and it simply isn’t true,” he said. “They slandered my son and dragged him through the mud.”
