ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - An Albuquerque officer shot and killed a man camping in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains Sunday night after the man threatened officers with a knife, police said Monday.
Albuquerque Police Chief Gordon Eden told reporters the man was shot following a lengthy standoff with police and efforts to get the suspect to surrender.
The man, who has not been named, died at the University of New Mexico Hospital, Albuquerque police spokeswoman Tasia Martinez said.
According to Eden, officers arrived at the foothills after receiving a call about a suspicious person. After the man threatened the officers’ lives, they requested a Crisis Intervention Team, Eden said.
“He did have weapons. We know factually that he kept producing knives and threatened the officers with knives,” Eden said during a press conference following the shooting.
During the standoff, Eden said the suspect requested that New Mexico State Police be called and said he was a liaison person or had a liaison relationship with state police.
However, when state police arrived to the scene, the man also was hostile with them, Eden said.
Eden said “less-than-lethal force” was used to calm the man but an officer eventually fired one shot.
The name of the officer in the shooting has not been released.
“We have officers that have not been interviewed, so we’re trying to provide you with factual information as quick as we can,” Eden told reporters late Sunday.
The shooting comes as Albuquerque police face a U.S. Justice Department investigation into three dozen shootings since 2010 and allegations of excessive force. Outcry over the shootings led the department to make a number of changes, including requiring all officers to wear lapel cameras and increasing hiring standards.
It’s the Albuquerque Police Department’s first police shooting under Eden, who became chief at the end of February.
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