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Keshawn Thomas

Age : 27

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/28/2022

Location : Valero gas station, 2721 Coors Boulevard NW

City : Albuquerque

County : Bernalillo

State : New Mexico

Agency : Albuquerque Police Department

Officer(s) :Marcos Flores; Dustin Ketchum; Kenneth Skeens

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during welfare check on man sleeping in vehicle

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/28/2022, Albuquerque Police Department officers Marcos Flores, Dustin Ketchum and Kenneth Skeens shot and killed 27-year-old Keshawn Thomas after responding to a welfare-check call concerning a man who had been sitting for several hours in a parked vehicle at a Valero gas station at 2721 Coors Boulevard NW. Thomas was initially asleep in the driver's seat, and police determined that the vehicle was not running and that they had no basis to arrest him for drunk driving.
The gas-station employee who called police reported that the vehicle had remained at a pump for several hours and that its dark-tinted windows made it difficult to see the driver. Officers arrived at approximately 11:32 p.m., ran the license plate and identified Thomas as the registered owner. They found him asleep inside.
Officers woke Thomas and told him to get out of the vehicle. They specifically told him that he was not in trouble. Officers believed Thomas was intoxicated after observing alcohol and an open container in the vehicle, but because the car was not running, they determined they did not have a drunk-driving case. Their plan was to have someone else retrieve Thomas and the car.
The encounter became increasingly argumentative. A third officer was summoned, and Thomas eventually moved away from the gas pumps while smoking cigarettes. Police checked for warrants and found none. Officers told Thomas that he could arrange for someone to pick up his vehicle rather than have police tow it.
Thomas then asked permission to retrieve his cellphone from the vehicle. Before allowing him back inside, officers asked whether he had any weapons. Thomas told them he had a gun in the trunk and voluntarily removed a loaded ammunition magazine from his pocket and handed it to an officer. Thomas was a lawful gun owner with a concealed-carry license, according to his family's attorney.
Police nevertheless permitted Thomas to return to the driver's seat to look for his phone. He sat with the driver's door open while officers stood nearby and repeatedly directed him to get the phone and come back out. Approximately 30 seconds later, one officer yelled that Thomas had a gun. Flores, Ketchum and Skeens all immediately opened fire.
All three officers subsequently told investigators that Thomas produced a handgun and began pointing it toward them. A loaded handgun was recovered from the driver's area afterward. Police also found a gun magazine on the driver's seat. However, investigators did not find the cellphone Thomas had told officers he was entering the vehicle to retrieve.
The body-camera footage released by APD did not clearly resolve the critical instant preceding the gunfire. Reporting reviewing the footage noted that it did not clearly show the position of Thomas's hands or the firearm immediately before officers fired. Thus, the police allegation that Thomas was beginning to point the gun at officers rests substantially on the accounts of the three officers who shot him rather than an unambiguous view from the released video.
The officers fired 16 rounds. Thomas was struck and killed.
Thomas's family sharply challenged APD's account and its handling of the evidence. His mother initially went to court seeking release of police video and other records, arguing that APD was withholding evidence necessary to determine what actually happened. Family attorneys emphasized that Thomas had voluntarily disclosed the firearm, surrendered a loaded magazine and had been allowed by police themselves to reenter the vehicle.
The family's description of Thomas also contrasted sharply with any suggestion that he habitually posed a danger to police. His attorney said Thomas routinely informed officers when he was carrying a firearm and had previously interacted respectfully with law enforcement.
Thomas was the father of a young daughter. His obituary described him as someone who loved music, dancing and spending time with his daughter and family.
The subsequent APD Internal Affairs Force Division investigation found significant problems with the officers' conduct leading up to the shooting. Although APD ultimately classified the actual gunfire as justified based on the officers' claimed perception of an imminent threat, investigators concluded that all three officers violated department policies during the encounter.
Investigators found that the officers failed to adequately de-escalate the encounter as their interaction with the intoxicated Thomas became increasingly confrontational. Kenneth Skeens was found to have violated APD's de-escalation policy and received an eight-hour suspension. Marcos Flores and Dustin Ketchum were found to have violated policies involving de-escalation, rendering medical aid and conducting the preliminary investigation; each received a written reprimand.
Thomas's family subsequently filed a federal wrongful-death and civil-rights lawsuit against Albuquerque, APD, Police Chief Harold Medina and the three officers. The litigation alleged that officers unnecessarily escalated an encounter that began simply because Thomas was asleep in his parked vehicle and that their actions culminated in his avoidable death.
The civil case ultimately produced a substantial later development. In 2025, Albuquerque agreed to pay Thomas's family $1 million to settle the wrongful-death case. Thomas's mother, Laura Thomas, continued to maintain after the settlement that her son had been killed without justification.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Marcos Flores joined APD on 03/27/2021 and had no previous police shooting documented by APD when he killed Thomas. APD's subsequent internal investigation found that Flores violated policies concerning de-escalation, rendering medical aid and conducting the preliminary investigation. He received a written reprimand.
Dustin Ketchum also joined APD on 03/27/2021 and had no prior police shooting documented by the department. The Internal Affairs Force Division likewise found that Ketchum violated APD policies concerning de-escalation, rendering aid and the preliminary investigation, resulting in a written reprimand.
Kenneth Skeens had been with APD since 06/09/2018. His subsequent history is substantially more significant. Only nine days before killing Thomas, Skeens was involved in the controversial arrest of a man with disabilities at an Albuquerque Target store. The man had been having difficulty using a self-checkout machine when store employees called police. That encounter later resulted in Skeens being fired and criminally prosecuted.
Prosecutors charged Skeens with false imprisonment and perjury, both felonies, as well as filing a false police report and battery arising from that Target arrest. The allegations included that Skeens unlawfully arrested the man and subsequently made false statements concerning the encounter.
APD's investigation of Thomas's killing separately found that Skeens violated the department's de-escalation policy during the encounter with Thomas. He received an eight-hour suspension for those violations.
Skeens was ultimately fired from APD in connection with the unrelated Target incident. His first criminal trial over that arrest ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Thus, the officer-background investigation reveals an unusually important chronological connection: Skeens participated in the disputed arrest of a disabled man on 08/19/2022, then nine days later participated in the fatal shooting of Keshawn Thomas on 08/28/2022. APD later determined that Skeens violated policy during the Thomas encounter, while the earlier incident ultimately led to his termination and criminal prosecution.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.danielsfuneral.com/obituaries/keshawn-thomas
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11327827/Family-black-man-shot-dead-New-Mexico-cops-sleeping-car-sue-police.html
https://www.cabq.gov/police/news/apd-releases-details-of-recent-officer-involved-shooting-8
https://sourcenm.com/2022/09/15/black-and-hispanic-man-killed-by-apd-over-lawfully-owned-firearm/
https://atlantablackstar.com/2022/10/31/we-have-to-be-the-voice-for-keshawn-family-of-new-mexico-man-files-lawsuit-to-force-city-to-release-evidence-related-to-fatal-shooting-by-cops-as-he-reached-for-his-phone/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/keshawn-thomas-albuquerque-man-gunned-down-after-cops-escalated-the-situation-experts-say/
https://francescrockettlaw.com/news-resources/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/family-speaks-following-lawsuit-settlement-051053690.html