More
than 100 outraged people held an emergency protest in front of police
headquarters on May 13 after another cowardly shooting death at the
hands of the Albuquerque Police Department. This was three days after
an unarmed Alan Gomez, 22, was shot in the back by APD officer Sean
Wallace — a cop with a long track record of gun violence against
unarmed people.
The
protest was organized by the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War
and End Racism) of New Mexico, and was joined by representatives of
numerous other community activist groups, as well as the family and
friends of the victim.
Preston Wood of the ANSWER Coalition, one
of the organizers of the event, told the crowd that the APD “employs
terror and violence against those who are most oppressed among us,
including those with mental illness and disabilities, the homeless,
the poor, and those who are super exploited because of their
nationality or because of the neighborhood in which they live.”
The
May 10 shooting marked the 17
APD-involved shooting in the past 17 months, resulting in three
deaths since the beginning of the year and four deaths over the past
12 months. Last year, there were a total of 14 APD officer-involved
shootings, nine of which were fatal, representing a killing rate
outpacing that of even New York City — a city that has 14 times the
population and a police force 10 times larger, but comparatively had
only eight deaths in 2010.
“It’s
totally barbaric, unjustified, inhuman and insane,” said Mike
Gomez, Alan Gomez’s father, who spoke at the protest. “My son
posed no threat to the cops as he was walking back into the house
when they shot him in the back. … These attacks against unarmed
citizens must
end.”
Police
department officials — as they invariably do when cops kill unarmed
people —tried to deflect responsibility for the killing to the
victim, claiming that Wallace was justified shooting Alan Gomez,
because he believed Gomez held
a weapon in his hand. It was later proven that the only thing Alan
Gomez was holding was a plastic spoon.
Cop
had a history of violence
This
is not the first time Wallace decided to be judge, jury and
executioner. In 2010, he shot and wounded a suspected car thief who
was allegedly climbing up on a roof in Northeast Albuquerque. The
shooting was ruled justified even though Wallace admitted he never
saw a weapon in the victim’s hand. Wallace killed another man in
2005 as a state police officer working in an undercover heroin
operation after the man allegedly tried to run over Wallace with a
truck during a traffic stop. Again the shooting was ruled justified,
but in the aftermath, the victim’s family received a $235,000
settlement against the state after filing a wrongful death lawsuit.
Wallace’s
propensity for violence was not limited to just using his gun. In
2003, he was sued for allegedly brutally beating up a Las Vegas,
N.M., man during a routine traffic stop. The victim also sued.
According
to KOAT ABC7, “APD said they knew about Wallace’s history with
state police, but hired him because he was never charged or convicted
of anything. Officials said police are named in lawsuits all the
time.”
Alan
Gomez’s killing
The
latest incident began with an early morning 911 call that described
Gomez as being “out of control” and holding relatives hostage
with a weapon. When cops arrived, they reportedly ordered Gomez to
surrender as he stood at the front door of his home. Gomez allegedly
refused and turned around to enter his home. Wallace then shot him in
the back.
According
to witnesses, when cops failed to find a weapon near the victim’s
body, they stormed the home searching everywhere for the phantom
weapon. Eventually they found an unloaded .22 rifle in a locked
bedroom closet, which had absolutely nothing to do with the front
door shooting.
Mary
Avila, the aunt of Alan Gomez, who had raised him from childhood as
his surrogate mother, said that the cops knew all along that Gomez
didn’t have a weapon.
“They
had scopes on their weapons and they could easily see that he [Gomez]
wasn’t carrying a gun in his hand,” she told Liberation,
adding: “When I was told he was dead, I just couldn’t believe it.
… I couldn’t accept it. They not only killed him for no reason,
they took a piece of my heart as well.”
The
family confirmed press reports that Gomez had a history of mental
illness and may have been “hallucinating” at the time of the
shooting, adding, however, that his problems should not have resulted
in his death.
“He
was a good, loving, kid,” his father Mike Gomez told Liberation.
“Sure, he had his problems, but he did not deserve to be gunned
down like that … to be treated like human waste.”
His
“human waste” comment referred to an incident last year when it
was discovered that an APD cop listed his job description on his
Facebook page as “human waste disposal” after he shot a person in
the back. The comment was eventually removed from Facebook after
public pressure. Meanwhile, that cop is back on patrol after law
enforcement officials and a spineless grand jury determined the
shooting was justified, even if the victim was running away.
Gomez
is one of a number of persons with a history of mental illness killed
by the police in recent months, including Christopher Torres, who was
killed in April.
In
response to a public outcry following the Torres case, the APD
reportedly instituted a brief training program that will supposedly
better equip the gun-happy cops to deal with “problem”
individuals. The department also said that database will eventually
be created identifying individuals with mental illness so that the
cops will “be better prepared” to avoid deadly confrontations.
The
ANSWER Coalition and others involved in the May 13 protest have vowed
to continue to fight for justice for Alan Gomez and all victims of
APD violence.
