New Mexico's top law enforcement official announced this week that a police officer has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the killing of a Black man at a gas station last summer.
Las Cruces Officer Brad Lunsford was booked Tuesday, but officials did not detain him, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez told reporters at a news conference.
Lunsford allegedly shot Presley Eze at a Chevron gas station on the afternoon of Aug. 2, 2022 after an employee called 911 to report that Eze had left the store without paying for a beer, according to the attorney general's office.
Lunsford was the first officer to arrive to the scene. Lunsford questioned Eze and, after he was "unable to verify Eze's identity," the officer "forcibly removed Eze from the vehicle in order to detain him," the attorney general's office said in a news release.
Eze, who was unarmed and shirtless, allegedly resisted attempts to take him into custody. The attorney general's office said a "scuffle ensued," with Eze ending up on the ground, on top of one of the officers who responded.
Eze put his hand on the second officer's taser and, in response, Lunsford pulled out his gun and shot Eze on the left side of his head at point-blank range, according to the news release.
Luis Robles, Lunsford's lawyer, did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment Thursday.
Eze was the oldest son of Nigerian immigrants who lived in Connecticut, according to a family spokesman who spoke at the attorney general's news conference Tuesday. He worked at a nursing home in Las Cruces, the spokesman said.
The attorney general's office investigated the killing, consulting with experts on the use of force who reviewed body camera footage and determined that the officer's use of deadly force was "not reasonable under the circumstances."
"The killing of Presley Eze is a tragedy and serves as yet another example of poor police tactics resulting in an unjustifiable use of force to subdue an individual resisting arrest for the commission of a minor crime," Torrez told reporters.
Police killings of Black people across the United States in recent years have drawn wide attention, sparking waves of social justice protests and renewing attention on allegations of police brutality.
