Albuquerque police officer jokes about shooting James Boyd–kills him two hours later

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday September 30, 2014 · 11:18 AM PDT

2014/09/30 · 11:18

On March 16, Albuquerque police opened fire on homeless camper James Boyd in the New Mexico foothills. The entire scene was caught on video and sparked instant public outrage.

The death of James Boyd was one of many fatal shootings in New Mexico, something the Department of Justice determined was a pattern of unjustified excessive force by the Albuquerque Police Department.

Now a dashcam video has surfaced, which recorded audio of Albuquerque Police Officer Keith Sandy, one of the two officers involved in the fatal shooting of James Boyd, saying he would shoot Boyd in the penis:

Sandy: What do they have you guys doing here?
Ware: I don't know. The guy asked for state police.

Sandy: Who asked?

Ware: I don't know.

Sandy: For this f***ing lunatic? I'm going to shoot him in the penis with a shotgun here in a second.

Ware: You got uh less-lethal?

Sandy: I got…

Ware: The Taser shotgun?

Sandy: Yeah.

Ware: Oh, I thought you guys got rid of those?

Sandy: ROP's got one...here's what we're thinking, because I don't know what's going on, nobody has briefed me...

A mere two hours later, Officer Sandy did fatally shoot James Boyd.

The Albuquerque police are denying he said it, but jump below the fold to hear the audio for yourself and read on about how the Albuquerque Police continue to stonewall the investigation.

From KOB4, which has done some excellent reporting around the story:

The Albuquerque Police Department are sticking to their story:

The Albuquerque Police Department maintains that instead of saying "For this f**ing lunatic? I'm going to shoot him in the penis with a shotgun here in a second," Officer Keith Sandy said, "For this f**ing lunatic? I'm going to shoot him with a Taser shotgun in a second."

They've also refused to release the official report:

APD also released one single page from the ten-page New Mexico State Police report on the shooting, which details a follow-up interview with state police Sgt. Chris Ware, who said he "doesn't remember" what was said that day, but that he "believes" he said "Taser shotgun."

KOB says repeated requests for comments from Mayor Richard Berry have been ignored.

This isn't the first troubling incident for Officer Sandy. In 2007, he was fired by the New Mexico State Police:

Albuquerque Police Department brass took a chance in 2007, when they hired four ex-State Police officers who had freshly been relieved of duty from that agency because of a double-dipping scandal.
One officer had resigned from State Police. The other three had been fired. All four faced criminal charges at one point for receiving payments from a private security contractor while on the clock for State Police, although those never materialized.

And it gets worse:

“They do not carry guns, they are not going to be badged,” Castro said in July 2007 . “They’re civilian employees. They’ll be collecting evidence.”
In fact, they all got badges. And they all got guns. And some of them also got tremendous power and standing within the department.

Officer Sandy is currently on paid leave while the investigation continues.

Albuquerque police officer jokes about shooting James Boyd–kills him two hours later

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