APD releases HelmetCam footage of shooting

Holding knives

Police Chief Gorden Eden released video of the incident during a Friday afternoon news conference. Much of it comes from an officer’s helmet camera. The shooting was justified, Eden said, because Boyd, holding knives, threatened an officer and the use of “less-than-lethal” devices hadn’t worked, he said.

“Do I believe it was a justified shooting? Yes,” Eden told reporters. “If you follow case law … there was a directed threat to an officer.” Boyd had a criminal history going back almost 20 years, Eden said. He had spent time in both the Doña Ana and Bernalillo county jails, the chief said. In one incident, Eden said, Boyd punched and broke an officer’s nose as she talked to him in an Albuquerque library.

“All of his charges have been violent,” Eden told reporters. Officers arriving on scene were told that Boyd had an “extensive history” of violence against police officers, that he was possibly diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and that he was a transient. Eden said two officers, Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez, fired three rounds each during the encounter. Sandy is a detective with APD’s Repeat Offender Project. He joined APD after he was fired by State Police amid allegations of double dipping on pay.

At least one bullet struck Boyd, though Eden said it’s not clear whether that’s what killed him because medical investigators haven’t released a cause of death. Police haven’t been able to locate a next of kin for Boyd. A multi-jurisdictional team is investigating the shooting, Eden said. Forty witnesses, many of whom only heard the incident, have been interviewed so far and “we’re not finished,” the chief said.

Eden’s first incident

The shooting is the first since Eden took over as APD chief late last month. Albuquerque police have shot and killed 22 men since the beginning of 2010, counting Sunday’s incident. The city’s police force is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, which is examining whether APD has a “pattern or practice” of violating people’s rights, specifically through the use of force.

One of the videos shown by Eden on Friday shows the beginning of the encounter with Boyd. Officers were dispatched on a “suspicious person’s call,” the chief said. Boyd was sleeping or lying under something when officers approached. He came out from beneath the cover and “as the officers began to talk to him, he threatened the officers with knives,” Eden said.

On the video, officers order Boyd repeatedly to drop the knives. According to dispatch logs released Friday, Boyd threw a rock at officers about 20 minutes before shots were fired. Boyd talks almost constantly during parts of the encounter. Eden said Boyd identified himself as an agent for the Department of Defense and other agencies. “I’ve been calling you all for five months,” Boyd can be heard saying on the video.

Eden said that Boyd asked for State Police to come to the scene. A State Police officer did and “he stated that the suspect threatened to kill him also,” Eden said. An APD crisis-intervention officer also spoke to Boyd, Eden said. Sometime later, Boyd appears to decide he’s ready to leave and he seems to think it’s part of an agreement with the officers. He also suggests it’s the officers who are the threat, not himself.

“In the private world, if you were down at a bar or a bus stop, I have the right to kill you right now because you’re trying to take me over,” Boyd says. “Don’t get stupid with me.” An officer responds: “We’re not going to get stupid.” Boyd then says he’s going to “walk with you. … Keep your word. I can keep you safe. Don’t worry about safety. I’m not a (expletive) murderer.” He picks up his backpack, officers use the flash bang and he pulls out the knives. About 10 seconds later, as Boyd appears to turn away, officers fire at him.

Eden said the officers fired a Taser shotgun round at Boyd as the dog was deployed. Eden said Boyd had “two open-bladed knives in his hands,” even as officers handcuffed him on the ground. Officers then used the barrels of their guns to pick over his belongings, located nearby under a clear tarp.

“The suspect did, in fact, make a decision not to follow the directions that were provided to him by the officers,” Eden said. “… On many occasions, he threatened officers. On many occasions, he refused to follow the direct commands of the officers.”

During the news conference, Eden took questions from reporters for four minutes before a public information officer tried to end the briefing. Eden responded to questions for about two more minutes before leaving. In a brief interview outside the conference room, the Journal asked Eden why officers didn’t spend more time trying to wait out Boyd – what changed that led them to take the action they did.

Eden said they couldn’t wait because Boyd was moving to leave and officers couldn’t contain him in the area because of the rugged terrain. “We still had hikers in the area,” Eden said. “We did not have a way as we normally do to be able to establish a strong outer perimeter because of the rocks, the hills, the loss of line of sight.”

On April 01 2014 03:08 DorF wrote:
Sure you shouldn't pull weapons on cops, but the cops could have just used non lethal weapons (seemingly they brought quite a few) or released the dog ?
But whatever they are the trained professionals and in that situation I'm sure they made the right decision, at least I hope so.

On April 01 2014 03:24 Ettick wrote:
Knives are just as dangerous as guns, if not more so at close range. The shooting was justified.

On April 01 2014 03:27 Peqqz wrote:



Yup. Shoot him while he is dieing.


Are you guys all serious?

On April 01 2014 03:47 Derez wrote:
The guy is in the absolute middle of nowhere, obviously a mental patient and the police decided to send what is more or less a SWAT team. They then provoke the guy by pointing weapons at him while obviously they could have been standing 20 meters away and try to engage him. The guy was in no way a threat, even if he were to charge an officer they could have shot him 30 times over on the way there.

Anyone who thinks this is acceptable policework needs to get his head checked, US police forces are pretty much militarized and they recruit heavily from the pool of people that want to look cool and aggressive. It's incredibly sad that the US public accepts this kind of bullshit from their police forces.

On April 01 2014 04:03 andrewlt wrote:
At least Americans aren't arrogant enough to post everything we disagree with Europeans about. Seriously, this just needs to stop. Every time I check TL General, it is filled with arrogant Europeans with holier than thou attitudes posting about local US news.

On April 01 2014 04:03 andrewlt wrote:
At least Americans aren't arrogant enough to post everything we disagree with Europeans about. Seriously, this just needs to stop. Every time I check TL General, it is filled with arrogant Europeans with holier than thou attitudes posting about local US news.

On April 01 2014 04:03 andrewlt wrote:
At least Americans aren't arrogant enough to post everything we disagree with Europeans about. Seriously, this just needs to stop. Every time I check TL General, it is filled with arrogant Europeans with holier than thou attitudes posting about local US news.

On April 01 2014 04:21 Advantageous wrote:
knives = threat. threat warrants self-defense. what are polices' self-defense? guns. what do guns do? shoot and kill or fatally wound. im not saying the shooting was justified, the officers couldve dealt with it some other way, that's less life-threatening, but they're under legal authority to apply "self-defense" if need be.

On April 01 2014 04:21 Advantageous wrote:
knives = threat. threat warrants self-defense. what are polices' self-defense? guns. what do guns do? shoot and kill or fatally wound. im not saying the shooting was justified, the officers couldve dealt with it some other way, that's less life-threatening, but they're under legal authority to apply "self-defense" if need be.

On April 01 2014 04:21 Advantageous wrote:
knives = threat. threat warrants self-defense. what are polices' self-defense? guns. what do guns do? shoot and kill or fatally wound. im not saying the shooting was justified, the officers couldve dealt with it some other way, that's less life-threatening, but they're under legal authority to apply "self-defense" if need be.

On April 01 2014 04:21 Advantageous wrote:
knives = threat. threat warrants self-defense. what are polices' self-defense? guns. what do guns do? shoot and kill or fatally wound. im not saying the shooting was justified, the officers couldve dealt with it some other way, that's less life-threatening, but they're under legal authority to apply "self-defense" if need be.

On April 01 2014 04:37 Golgotha wrote:


"knives = threat."

Wow, I applaud thee for coming up with that. So I guess nuking the guy could have worked as well huh? The guy is a threat, so all threats should be treated as potential bombs and be taken out immediately with blatant force. That's just self defense against a threat. So it makes it okay.

Can you seriously just sit down and try to wrap your head around the fact that the situation did not call for the force that was exhibited in this video? do you really believe that what they did should be just shrugged off as "legal authority"? wake up people, don't be so ignorant.

On April 01 2014 04:38 wei2coolman wrote:

Not saying police are in the right here.
but look up tueller drill.

On April 01 2014 04:46 zezamer wrote:
Guys, flashbangs arent really like in cs

and nobody is stupid enough to go close to someone whos known to be aggressive and doesnt show his hands

On April 01 2014 04:49 Golgotha wrote:


I already know the tueller drill. what this drill doesn't include is the fact there are 5 other men with rifles...look that up. 1v1, I can understand him shooting if he pulls a knife. But 6v1? The guy would have got riddled the first step he took with that knife.

On April 01 2014 04:44 KlinKz wrote:
There are so many things that this OP left out of the story that distorts the event if read from this topic page. The responses from the OP is also irritating the American and European perspectives on police brutality is different, our cultures are different though it may seem that western cultures are very alike. Across the Atlantic ocean it is different, America has probably the most armed population in the world, these police endure stressful events on a day-to-day basis.

Don't look down on America, it's different there and America will never be Europe. I'm sorry to the man, but it's evident that his life choices that he made put him in that kind of situation.

On April 01 2014 04:49 Golgotha wrote:


I already know the tueller drill. what this drill doesn't include is the fact there are 5 other men with rifles...look that up. 1v1, I can understand him shooting if he pulls a knife. But 6v1? The guy would have got riddled the first step he took with that knife.