Las Cruces police officer Felipe Hernandez abuse of power leads to shooting death of Teresa Gomez as cop is charged with murder and wrongful death lawsuit against police department behaving with no impunity.
Define self defence? A New Mexico police officer has been charged with murder after bodycam video showed him fatally shooting a grandmother as she drove away from him during a traffic stop.
The incident took place on October 3, 2023, at approximately 4:45 a.m., as Las Cruces Police Department Officer Felipe Hernandez approached Teresa Gomez, aged 45, and her passenger, Jesus Garcia as they sat in a parked vehicle outside a public housing complex.
At some point Hernandez aggressively accuses the pair of trespassing, with Gomez protesting and demanding that she be allowed to get on with her way. After having alighted out of the vehicle at the officer’s request, Gomez then abruptly proceeds to drive off, only for a caught off guard Hernandez to fire off three rounds into the driver’s side of the car, killing the grandmother.
‘There was no self defense’
Las Cruces cop Felipe Hernandez turned himself in Tuesday and was charged with second-degree murder with a firearm enhancement in the Oct. 3 death of Teresa Gomez, 45, KFOX reported.
Previously released bodycam footage showed the police officer firing at least three rounds after warning Gomez he would ‘really make her life a living hell.’
‘There was no necessity for him to use deadly force,’ Doña Ana County District Attorney Gerald Byers said of the officer who was never in the ‘zone of danger.’
‘We looked at self-defense. There was no self-defense.’
The dead woman’s family has since filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and police alleging excessive force and violation of her civil rights.
During the nine minute interaction caught on bodycam video, the eight-year veteran shines his flashlight into the vehicle and noticing that Gomez with a paintball gun.
Demeaning unprofessional police conduct
Hernandez questions Gomez, saying he believes she was trespassing — which she denies several times – along with demanding that asking she get out of her car.
She refuses to step out and tells him, ‘Don’t touch me,’ as he reaches for her arm, but eventually complies after Hernandez threatens to shoot her with a Taser.
Gomez tells him she had been at a public housing complex after hours visiting a friend called Butterfly, but he again tells her she was trespassing.
At one point, he recognizes the passenger as Garcia, who had been previously cautioned for trespassing.
‘Jesus Garcia,’ Hernandez exclaims. ‘Holy f–k, you’re back on the f—ing property!’
The officer then tells Gomez that Garcia has a warrant for his arrest and is not allowed to be on the property. The exchange becomes heated as the cop uses profanity and threatens to tow the vehicle.
Abuse of police authority
‘You don’t listen,’ he tells Gomez after she questions why he needs her name. ‘Because I’m doing a f—ing investigation. You’re just like Jesus Garcia. You want to argue all the time.’
He tells her that she needs to cooperate or he will ‘really, really make her life a living hell,’ the video shows.
As he writes down her information, he allows Gomez to get back into the car, but she immediately tries to drive off with the door open as Hernandez calls for reinforcement fires off at least three rounds, yelling, ‘Stop! Stop!’
Gomez can be heard screaming as the car stops a few feet away.
Garcia, who was later arrested on multiple warrants, had pending felony drug and burglary charges, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Hernandez had been on administrative leave as of Oct. 17 before his arrest on the murder charge. The Las Cruces Police Department had not publicly identified him previously.
System of impunity and invincibility and unaccountability
‘From the very beginning of Mr. Hernandez’s interaction with Ms. Gomez, the ability to manage protocol is non-existent,’ said Byers, the district attorney. ‘His interactions with her, just on a human level, was exceptionally subpar and did not meet the standards that LCPD demands of its officers.’
He noted that Gomez could be seen backing up her car toward Hernandez, but said the cop was not in the ‘zone of danger’ when he opened fire, KOB reported.
‘Teresa Gomez was not a fleeing felon because she did not present a danger to Officer Hernandez or anyone else,’ Byers said.
Hernandez had been involved in previous use-of-force incidents but had never killed anyone until the deadly encounter, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
Gomez’s family has filed a federal wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and police alleging excessive force and violation of her civil rights.
‘The Las Cruces Police Department’s lack of internal oversight and supervision has allowed a culture of aggression to develop, promoting an acceptance of unlawful use of deadly force contributing to the preventable death of Teresa Gomez,’ the family’s attorney, Shannon Kennedy, told CNN.
Police above the law
Las Cruces Interim Police Chief Jeremy Story told the outlet in November that it ‘is certainly a matter of concern when there are controversial officer-involved shootings.
‘We take a critical look at training, policy, and equipment after all critical incidents and look for areas of concern that need to be addressed. Any response must be based on objective measures and cannot influence the criminal investigation,’ he said.
Gomez’s family has struggled to make sense of her death.
‘If you’ve seen the video, the beginning – with just how the officer was talking to my mom … for any son, daughter, mother, father, like, it’s hard to see someone, a grown man, talk to your mom like that,’ her eldest son, Johny Gomez, told CNN.
‘We didn’t understand at what point it went wrong because it didn’t seem like it could go wrong,’ her sister, Angela Lozano-Gutierrez, told the outlet. ‘From, like, everything that happened, it seemed like it was kind of, like, getting to the part where they were just going to let her go.
‘And so, it was just shocking that it ended with her dying,’ she added.
