Teresa Gomez minutes before a Las Cruces police officer — reportedly Felipe Hernandez — shot and killed her. (Screenshot: Las Cruces Police Department)
As seen on body camera footage, an officer on bicycle patrol fatally shot a woman as she began to suddenly drive away during a tense, nighttime encounter.
Now, the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, reportedly expects a lawsuit in the death of Teresa Gomez.
Please note the video is disturbing.
Speaking in a press conference on Tuesday, Las Cruces Interim Police Chief Jeremy Story declined to say whether the officer’s actions were appropriate. However, he acknowledged the officer’s aggressive, profanity-laden statements.
He did not name the official, citing protocol that the man had to be interviewed first, but he said they would name him later. Attorneys for Gomez’s family identified the officer as Felipe Hernandez, according to The Las Cruces Sun News.
“What you’re about to watch will likely be troubling,” Story said. “You will see things that are hard to watch and hear the officer speak in a way that is difficult to listen to.”
As seen on video of the Oct. 3 incident, the officer approached a parked car at what he later described as public housing for elderly and disabled people. Gomez sat in the driver’s seat. A man sat in the passenger seat.
Hernandez berated Gomez and the man throughout the footage. He told them to roll down a window, to leave their hands where he could see them, and to open the door. Gomez opened the door but did not immediately step out. She refused when he demanded her to step out.
“Step out now, or I’m going to pull you out,” he said.
The argument continued as he threatened to stun her with a Taser. She finally stepped out.
Hernandez described the man as having a paintball gun. He recognized him.
“Jesus Garcia!” he said. “Holy f—! You’re back on the f—ing property!”
Citing an earlier court appearance, he said the judge told the man not to return.
“Didn’t I rip your a– last time?” the officer said.
He told Gomez that the man had trespassing warrants.
Gomez said she had been visiting and was looking for her keys. Hernandez told her there were rules and regulations on the property and that she was not supposed to visit after certain hours.
“Can you just shut the f— up for 10 f—ing seconds?” the officer said.
“Why are you talking to me like that?” she said.
“Because you don’t listen,” he said.
She initially gave him a different last name but eventually told him it was Gomez. Hernandez said he would put a warrant out for Garcia’s arrest.
“You make stupid f—ing comments all the f—ing time because you don’t want to listen, OK?” the officer told Garcia.
Gomez asked to sit back down. The officer said yes.
As he continued to process the warrant and wrote notes, she turned the vehicle on and started driving away. He told her to stop, then pulled out his gun.
He repeated his commands to stop. Facing the open driver’s door, he opened fire three times. Cries of shock and pain can be heard.
That’s when the video stops.
At the time of the incident, Garcia was booked for earlier warrants, and there were no new charges from this incident, Story said.
The chief told reporters that the officer was placed on administrative leave. The officer had been involved in use-of-force incidents before, none deadly.
When a reporter pressed the chief on why the officer opened fire on a car that wasn’t headed toward him, Story only spoke in generalities.
“Generally speaking, officers use deadly force to prevent someone who is fleeing when that person poses a significant threat of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or others,” he said.
A city spokesperson said that they expect a lawsuit over the incident, according to the Sun News.
“Teresa Gomez was a beloved mother, daughter, sister, and grandmother,” attorneys for Gomez’s family said in a statement. “She brought so much life into the world; her family members gathered yesterday to bury her and are all at a loss at her life being snuffed out.”
They called the officer’s actions “an unlawful trespassing investigation.”
“Hernandez used profane language, addressed Teresa in an aggressive manner and belittled her, threatening at times violence and at times arrest,” they said. “As she slowly pulled her car away, Hernandez shot at her three times with no cause. Teresa Gomez had committed no crime and was a threat to no one as she slowly drove away from a verbally abusive officer.”
They claim Hernandez also did not help her, instead running to his bike.
“We must end the callous indifference to life that pays no consideration to the human connections of family that we all have,” they wrote. “Teresa’s family urges the city of Las Cruces to immediately change the culture of indifference to life with improved screening of officers, improved training, and supervision that places the preservation of life at the pinnacle of concerns.”
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