Death by Cop 2022-2024
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Teresa Gomez
Gender : Female
Age : 45
Race : Latino/a/e
Date : 10/03/2023
Location : 1300 block of Burley Court
City : Las Cruces
County : Dona Ana
State : New Mexico
Agency : Las Cruces PD
Officer(s) :Felipe Hernandez
Cause of Death : Gunshot
Event : Killed by patrol patrol officer for undisclosed reasons
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
A Las Cruces patrol officer was on a “proactive bicycle patrol” just before 5 a.m. on 10/03/2023 near the 1300 block of Burley Court when he “made contact “with a woman who was driving a black 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer.
In the bodycam footage linked below, the officer is seen approaching the parked vehicle in a well-lighted parking lot in which Teresa Gomez and a male sat. The officer is immediately rude, curses and threatens Gomez, demands to know her "fucking name", threatens and curses at her throughout, asks questions and does not allow her to answer. Ms. Gomez is polite throughout the lengthy ordeal of being berated, threatened and cursed at in the bodycam footage. The officer then begins to threaten her passenger, insists that he knows the man is not supposed to be at that location, something he had accused Ms. Gomez of before who did not seem to know what the officer was referring to. Ms, Gomez is very nonconfrontational, remains polite throughout the exchange even when she is threatened and insulted by the officer. When the officer begins his verbal assault barrage against the passenger, Ms. Gomez, without saying a word, starts the car and backs out of the parking space.
The officer had made threats that they were not supposed to be there, would be arrested if they merely replied to him and she was attempting to leave the parking lot in a civil manner away from the officer who was vbisibly looking for a victim. When she backs away from the parking lot to escape the confrontation, the officer fires several shots at her while driving, killing her. She had been polite, cooperative, unarmed and entirely appropriate and seemed to only want to escape the abuse when she was clearly told that the officer prohibited them from being parked in the area.
SOURCE LINKS :
https://www.ktsm.com/news/woman-dies-after-officer-involved-shooting-in-las-cruces/
