Wednesday, October 1, 2014

James Boyd: "Officer's comments before fatal shooting were 'unacceptable"

An officer aims his weapon at James Boyd moments before Boyd is shot 
Monday: Chief Gorden Eden of the Albuquerque Police Department addressed comments made by an officer hours before James Boyd was shot and killed.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Albuquerque police officer's comments before a March fatal shooting that sparked a protest and FBI investigation were "completely unacceptable," said the city's police chief.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Chief Gorden Eden said officer Keith Sandy violated department policy when he used profanity to describe James Boyd before Sandy and another officer killed the 38-year-old mentally ill homeless man.
Sandy's comments were captured by a New Mexico State Police dashboard camera March 16, around two hours before the shooting at Boyd's Sandia foothills campsite. Police released the recording Monday. 
Keith Sandy told another officer he was going to shoot Boyd with a "taser shotgun".  For whatever reason, the news station redacted the word "taser" on the captioned video. [Keith Sandy video]
Previous footage related to this incident showed officers surrounding James Boyd as police tried to get him to surrender from his Sandia foothills campsite during a stand-off that lasted hours. Boyd pulled out two knives on officers who had initially approached him and repeatedly threatened to kill officers, the videos showed. [Video]

One video shows Boyd, who suffers from schizophrenia, telling officers he's a government agent,

Another video, an officer can be heard telling another officer: "Try to keep him occupied then. We have a plan to take him into custody."
James Boyd
In previous videos you could see Boyd gathering his belongings as if he wanted to surrender. This is a matter of interpretation, hopefully the facts of the case, when released, will tell the entire story. Since the shooting, Sandy has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the federal probe. He has been ordered not to talk to media.

After having his arm amputated in an effort to save his life, Boyd died at the hospital.

Albuquerque protesters (video) angry over James Boyd shooting.  Hundreds marched in protest over the shooting of James Boyd, a homeless man who appeared to be surrendering to police.  Twenty two people have been shot by police in Albuquerque since 2010.