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Eric Padilla

Age : 34

Gender : Male

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 08/15/2021

Location : 9121 Menaul Boulevard NE, near Northeastern Boulevard NE

City : Albuquerque

County : Bernalillo

State : New Mexico

Agency : Albuquerque Police Department

Officer(s) :Max Denerstein; Christopher Mings

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during foot pursuit after stolen-vehicle investigation

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/15/2021, Albuquerque Police Department Officers Max Denerstein and Christopher Mings shot and killed 33-year-old Eric Padilla during a foot pursuit near 9121 Menaul Boulevard NE. The encounter began with an investigation of a stolen Honda Accord and developed into a pedestrian stop after police located Padilla and a woman near a Walmart. A later special-prosecutor review, completed in April 2023, examined police reports, witness statements, video and photographs and identified both shooting officers.
Earlier that afternoon, Mings saw a Honda Accord near Lomas and Louisiana boulevards and checked its license plate. Police determined that the car had been reported stolen the previous night. Officers attempted a traffic stop, but the driver continued driving away. Rather than begin a conventional high-speed pursuit, police fired a StarChase GPS tracking device onto the Honda and tracked it remotely.
Police followed the GPS signal to the area of Morrow Avenue and Pennsylvania Boulevard NE, where they found that someone had removed the tracking device from the Honda. Officers subsequently located the abandoned car in a Walmart parking lot near Northeastern and Wyoming boulevards. Surveillance footage showed a man and woman leaving the vehicle, and police broadcast their descriptions.
Officers later encountered Padilla and a woman near Northeastern and Menaul. Body-camera video shows officers questioning the pair because they matched the descriptions of the people who had left the Honda. Padilla was initially cooperative. During the encounter he removed a knife from his pocket and voluntarily handed it to police.
The officers then told Padilla they intended to pat him down for additional weapons. Padilla objected to the search and ran. Denerstein and Mings pursued him on foot. The subsequent police video release shows that the transition from questioning to pursuit occurred rapidly after Padilla declined to submit to the pat-down.
According to APD, civilian witnesses and video reviewed during the investigation, Padilla turned partially toward the pursuing officers while running and removed a handgun. Denerstein and Mings then opened fire, striking him. Padilla fell near Menaul Boulevard and died at the scene. Police recovered a handgun near his body.
Police did not establish that Padilla fired the handgun during the encounter. When APD released the body-camera footage in September 2021, the department acknowledged that it remained unclear whether the weapon had been fired. Thus, the evidence supporting the officers' claim of an imminent deadly threat centered on Padilla allegedly producing the gun while running and turning partly toward them, rather than on Padilla firing at police.
APD later said investigators had forensically associated the handgun recovered near Padilla with three other shootings in Albuquerque during the summer of 2021. Those allegations concerned the history of the firearm and did not establish that Padilla fired it during his encounter with Denerstein and Mings.
APD publicly released body-camera footage and additional information about the shooting on 09/23/2021. The release identified Denerstein and Mings as the officers who fired and provided the first substantially detailed public reconstruction of the events between the abandoned Honda and Padilla's death.
The criminal review of the officers' conduct remained unresolved publicly for considerably longer. In 2023, Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman appointed a special prosecutor to review whether Denerstein or Mings should face criminal charges. The review included police reports, witness statements, videos and photographs.
On 04/03/2023, the special prosecutor issued a formal decision declining to charge either officer. The prosecutor concluded that the available evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Denerstein and Mings were not acting under a reasonable belief that Padilla's actions threatened them or others with death or great bodily harm. The decision closed the DA's criminal review while expressly noting that it did not prevent administrative action, investigation by another agency or civil litigation..

OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Max Denerstein had served with the Albuquerque Police Department since 2014 when he killed Padilla. APD reported after the shooting that Denerstein had not previously been involved in a police shooting.
Denerstein was later named as a defendant in a 2024 federal civil-rights lawsuit, Scott v. City of Albuquerque. The plaintiff initially alleged civil-rights violations against Denerstein and another APD officer arising from a separate 2023 arrest.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.cabq.gov/police/news/apd-releases-details-of-recent-officer-involved-shooting-2
https://da2nd.nm.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/E-Padilla-Statement-of-Facts.pdf
https://www.kob.com/archive/apd-releases-video-of-deadly-police-shooting/
https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/apd-releases-video-of-deadly-police-shooting/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbB20YMNF8Q
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-mexico/nmdce/1%3A2024cv00710/504101/20/
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-mexico/nmdce/1%3A2024cv00710/504101/42/