Questions Linger in Albuquerque Police Shooting One Year Later

Police shot and killed James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless camper, in March 2014 following an hourslong standoff and after an officer first fired the XREP rounds.

Those rounds didn’t subdue the homeless camper, and SWAT team member Dominique Perez and former detective Keith Sandy then fired live rounds.

Video of the shooting showed Boyd appearing to surrender before officers opened fire. Authorities later said Boyd had schizophrenia.

Taser said in its warning that XREP rounds used after their expiration date “may result in malfunctions and lack of effectiveness.”

It was not known if the Albuquerque officers’ XREP rounds malfunctioned or were expired.

However, a lawyer says the Taser shotgun’s ineffectiveness will play a key role in the officers’ defense. Perez and Sandy have been charged with murder — a rarity in police shootings.

“It is an overengineered weapon that had too many problems and not enough impact,” Perez’s attorney Luis Robles said.

“Would the availability of another, more effective, less lethal tool have changed the outcome? Perhaps,” he said in an interview last week. “It probably would have turned out differently if SWAT had set up an inner perimeter and brought all of its tools to bear.”

Albuquerque police spokeswoman Celina Espinoza said the department believes the shotguns were discontinued because they were not cost-effective for police agencies.

“The failure of the tool was likely due to the amount of clothing Mr. Boyd was wearing, not the expiration of the round utilized,” Espinoza told The Associated Press.

She said Albuquerque police used the tools as a “less lethal option in longer-distance scenarios” until about mid-2014.

Espinoza said an internal investigation into the shooting is ongoing.