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Las
Cruces police officer Brad Lunsford allegedly shot Presley Eze,
a 36-year-old Connecticut man working in a Las Cruces nursing
home, in the back of the head in August 2022 at a gas station.
The officers had stopped Eze after an employee reported he
shoplifted a beer from the station, according to police records
and video.
State Attorney General Raul Torrez on Tuesday said the killing
was an unjustifiable use of force and another example of "poor
police tactics."
Torrez said in a statement that his office consulted with
use-of-force experts who concluded that deadly force was not
reasonable in the circumstances.
Eze is among Black Americans killed by police in recent years
whose deaths have sparked protests and a renewed push for civil
rights and curbs on police brutality.
Lunsford was booked on the charge and released on Tuesday, a
spokesperson for Torrez said.
Luis Robles, a lawyer for Lunsford, said that during a struggle
Eze fell atop a second officer, tried to take the officer's
handgun, then took his taser as Lundsford attempted to pull Eze
off.
Lundsford feared he and the second officer could be tasered and
possibly shot with one of their own handguns while
incapacitated, Robles said.
(Reporting By Andrew Hay; Editing by Donna Bryson and Bill
Berkrot)
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