LAS CRUCES - Family members of Juan Gabriel Torres, a Las Cruces man fatally shot by police on Sunday afternoon, are objecting to the use of deadly force by law enforcement.
Isabel Torres of Las Cruces, mother of Juan Gabriel Torres, acknowledged on Tuesday that her son had his problems. However, she said he "wasn't a mass murderer" and didn't deserve to be shot by police. Family members planned a vigil on Tuesday night near the site of his' death. A small memorial shrine has been set up there.
"My son was a human being," she said. "He had a family. He had me. He had his brothers. He had his sons."
Police officers fired upon Torresduring a confrontation on the Lohman Avenue bridge over Interstate 25. Authorities have saidhe was a suspectin a robbery and theft of a white truck from an 86-year-old man earlier in the day.The Las Cruces Police Department has said Torres was wielding a 14-inch-long knife and lunged at officers.
Isabel Torres said she thinks officers could have de-escalated the situation through dialogue or non-lethal force. At times when her son had been angry orfrustrated, she said he readily calmed down by taking a drive and talking it out.
"Just because you have a badge and a gun does not mean you need to shoot to kill," she said. "Why did they have to kill him when they could've tasered him? I feel like they could have talked to him and calmed him down."
Asked Monday about the possibility of officers having used astun gun against Torres, LCPDPolice Chief Jaime Montoya replied: "When you're confronted with a deadly force situation, you respond with deadly force. If we have enough time to react to a situation, we have multiple officers, then we start talking amongst each other about who has less-lethal coverage, who has lethal coverage. So that is part of the conversationand part of the investigation that we're dealing with right now."
Montoya has said officers were within their rights to fire their guns. LCPDspokesman Dan Trujillo said Tuesday two police officers are on paid administrative leave in response to the shooting.
LCPD has declined to release the names of the officers.
Isabel Torres said shewas released from the hospital on Thursday after having heart surgery. Then,on Sunday,a Las Cruces police detective knocked on her door "to let me know there was an incident, and he's dead." She said news of her son's death was a shock and couldn't have come a worse time, considering her medical recovery. Since then, she said she'gotten little information from the department.
"They haven't returned to tell me what happened," she said.
Lapel cam photo
Isabel Torres said she's still not clear on all the details of the situation, but she doesn't accept the public account offered by the police department. She's also challenging a photo police released —a still-capture fromof an officer'slapel camera video —of a knife-holding man. While the face of the man looks like her son, she said the body type doesn't. She questioned if the photo was altered. Also, she said the man appears to not be wearing a shirt in the photo, but is wearing a shirt in a video captured by a civilian.
The photo in question is grainy with heavy back-lighting, making it difficult to determine much detail. LCPD has declined to release the entire video of the shooting, saying the incident is still under investigation.
LCPDspokesman Dan Trujillo replied to the family'sallegation, saying: "The photo we sent out, and posted to our Facebook page, is an actual screen-save from lapel camera video of the incident. The photo was cropped to a smaller size, to preserve the integrity of the investigation, but otherwise unedited."
One witness who captured a video of the incident told the Sun-News on Mondaythat the man who was shot by police had jumped out of a white truck on Lohman Avenue. The man was holding a "pretty big blade" in one hand and a beer in the other, the witness said.
Isabel Torres saidshe's aware there was another person, one of her son's friends,in the truck at the time of the incident. She said police officers who responded were so fixated on her son that they didn't pay attention to the second person. She said she's concerned about the use of force by police departments across the country. Shenever thought it would affect her personally. While mostofficers are well-meaning, Isabel Torres said,there's still a problem that needs to be addressed.
Looking back
Juan Gabriel Torres, one of four brothers, attended high school in Carlsbad, family members said. He moved with family to Las Cruces in the early 2000s. His three children —ages 12, 13 and 14 — were born in Las Cruces. He wasn't married, his mother said.
Savanna Segura of Las Cruces, alongtimefriend of Torres', said she recalled he "loved kids."
"He had a lot of fun; kids loved him," she said.
Isabel Torres said she's aware her son visited a medical clinic from time to time, but she doesn't know if he saw a mental health counselor.
Juan Gabriel Torres had severalrun-ins with the criminal justice system in the 2000s.
His mother said he'd been "struggling to get on his feet" in life as of late.
"Overall he was a good person," said his cousin, Melissa Muñoz."He had a caring heart."
Torres' family has set up a GoFundMe.com account to raise money for his funeral expenses. It can be viewed athttps://www.gofundme.com/2l3g3dw.
Isabel Torres said she's considering hiring an attorney to file a lawsuit against the city over her son's death.She last saw her son on Saturday. Hestopped by to see how she was doing, post-surgery.
"He hugged me, and I held him in my arms," she said. "And then he left."
A public rosary service for Torres is scheduled at 6 p.m. Sept. 1 at La Paz-Graham's Funeral Home, 555 W. Amador Ave. A funeral Mass will take place at 10 a.m. Sept. 2 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral, 1240 S. Espina St.
Diana Alba Soular may be reached at 575-541-5443,dalba@lcsun-news.comor@AlbaSoularon Twitter.
