On June 29, Jeramiah Salyards, 25, was fatally shot by police in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This incident isn’t in the vein of George Floyd; Salyards was armed with a knife. He reportedly attacked someone at a local McDonald’s, prompting the police response. The victim said he picked up Salyards for a ride and wanted to buy him a meal, a case of charity that took a dark turn. Salyards stabbed him in the drive-thru and later fled the scene.
When police found Salyards at a bus stop, the situation quickly escalated, leading to shots being fired. The primary point of contention is that officers fired and continued to fire with innocent bystanders in the crossfire. It’s also true that Salyards created this situation with his refusal to heed officers’ warnings. The police chief described the shooting as chaotic, which isn’t a vote of confidence that proper procedure was followed.
Officers Eric Wilensky, Brenda Johnson, Violet Baca, and Christian Cordova were involved in the fatal shooting. One of the two bystanders in the crossfire was hit in the knee, but the other sustained four gunshot wounds, critically injuring him. Albuquerque PD, through Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock, with APD’s Investigative Enhancement Division, noted that responding officers viewed Salyards as armed and dangerous and willing to stab someone else if he had the chance, hence why the aggressive nature when they encountered him at the bus station (via Albuquerque Journal) [emphasis mine]:
"If I could use one word to describe both scenes: chaos," APD Chief Harold Medina said during a briefing ... "I mean, you could clearly tell that these incidents escalated extremely quickly."
Medina said the department would be assessing the officers' tactics in the shooting — particularly that they appeared to fire in the general direction of Salyards as well as bystanders.
Medina said one of the rules police have ingrained when it comes to deadly force is "be sure of your target and what is beyond it."
"Those are questions that we're going to have to answer during the administrative investigation, like what was in line? What was the officers perceptions? What was going through their mind at that time? So we do have to answer some of those questions," he said. "And when the investigation comes out, we should have some answers as to what the officers are observing, why shots were fired, what they saw and why it was necessary at the moment with these individuals in line."
Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock, with APD's Investigative Enhancement Division, detailed the June 29 police shooting and released lapel video and photo evidence.
[…]
The video showed Salyards waved his arms rapidly toward the three men, apparently holding a knife in one hand, before officers opened fire. Police continued firing as Salyards goes toward one of the men who fell over — having apparently been struck by officers' gunfire.
Lapel video showed Salyards kept on his feet as police unloaded a volley of gunfire while one of the men huddled on the ground in the fetal position, feet away from Salyards. Bullets can be seen striking the ground around the man as Salyards is also apparently hit by bullets.
The video showed police continued to point their guns at Salyards after he's fallen to the ground — with the bystander still laying behind him. At one point, Salyards appeared to try to get up and police fired another two gunshots at him, leading him to crumple to the sidewalk.
[…]
He added, "We've had the luxury of sitting here viewing four different videos, but our officers are out there in real time... they're making a decision that they didn't have the luxury to sit back and look at this, sit, think about it and make a decision based off of that."
Hartsock said Salyards was "raising a knife above the shoulders and head" when officers fired.
"We believe he already was willing to use that to stab someone else and every officer there knew that as they approached him," he said.
Salyards was previously sentenced to three years in prison for the stabbing of a Albuquerque bus driver in 2020 and was released just over a month before his death.
During officer-involved shootings, there are times when, regrettably, innocents get injured. Most of the time, these controversial incidents that are reported to smear law enforcement end up being justified, with the perpetrator either being armed, reaching for the officer’s firearm, or acting in a manner that places the life of the police officer and others in danger.
The quote that stuck with me from the Albuquerque police chief centered on an officer’s training in drawing your weapon: be sure of your target and what is beyond it. If you watch the video, officers opened fire as the two bystanders entered the crossfire.
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Then again, as it is often said because it’s true, these officers must make split-second decisions, and even the right decision can have tragic or unintended outcomes.
I don’t know about charges for all of them, though one of the officer’s body cam footage places her in direct fire toward Salyards and the man behind him. She still fired her weapon. Let the investigators decide.
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Regarding bad shoots, here’s what happened in San Antonio, Texas, where an officer-involved shooting led to three cops being fired and charged with murder in the shooting of Melissa Perez on June 23:
