New Mexico AG: Las Cruces Police officer charged in 2022 shooting death at gas station

A Las Cruces Police Department officer was charged with voluntary manslaughter (a third degree felony) for the Aug. 2, 2022 shooting death of 36-year-old Presley C. Eze Jr., at a Las Cruces gas station.

Brad Lunsford, the Las Cruces Police Department officer accused of the crime, was taken into custody on Tuesday, said Attorney General Raúl Torrez in an Oct. 3 press conference in Las Cruces.

Lunsford was one of two officers interacting with Eze the day of his death, Torrez said. According to an affidavit for arrest warrant, a second officer, Keegan Arbogast, was also on the scene and present during the shooting. Torrez said Arbogast has not been charged with a crime.

Torrez said Lunsford created an unnecessary escalation of force.

"We at the Attorney General's Office communicated with the District Attorney here several months ago and indicated our willingness to undertake the investigation and potential prosecution of this matter," said Torrez, who was flanked by members of Eze's family who made the trip from Connecticut, family attorneys and Bobbie Green, Director of the Doña Ana County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Tuesday at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

"Unfortunately we were not provided with a complete investigative file containing all of the videos and images that would be necessary to evaluate this case. But after receiving those videos and conducting an independent analysis, which includes consulting with national experts on the use of force, we determined that criminal charges were justified."

According to Luis Robles, an Albuquerque based attorney representing the City in this case, both officers were initially placed on paid administrative leave, but returned to duty after their statements were given to New Mexico State Police, who led the Doña Ana County Officer Involved Task Force that investigated the shooting. The Task Force is made up of multiple police agencies in the county.

Robles said Lunsford turned himself in on Tuesday, was processed and released. He will be placed back on paid administrative leave following the charges announced on Tuesday.

"For a first degree murder, you have to be able to prove a very high burden of premeditation and at this point, we don't have any evidence of that," Torrez said. "We don't have any evidence of, frankly, malice or racial animas. If that changes, we have the opportunity to amend the charging document to reflect that."

Torrez said information on the shooting was received by his office on Sept. 20 that included cell phone video from an eyewitness along with lapel video from both officers.

"We need to start having a broader, more complicated conversation on why this keeps happening in this country," Torrez said. "Regardless of the outcome of this prosecution, we have a much broader task in front of us in this community and all across the country.

"This was a tragedy that should never have happened. I want everyone to understand that when (Eze) lost his life on the pavement outside that gas station, the original call that came in was for petty theft."

What happened the day Presley C. Eze Jr. was killed?

Eze, a 36-year-old Black man born in Connecticut and living in southern New Mexico, stopped at the Chevron gas station on the 2600 block of South Valley Drive. He wanted a pack of cigarettes.

The clerk asked Eze for an ID. Eze allegedly said he did not have it on him, according to police reports, so the clerk refused to sell him the cigarettes. Then, one of Eze's two acquaintances tried to buy the cigarettes, ostensibly on Eze's behalf. Again, the clerk refused.

Another clerk told police that Eze returned to the store a few minutes later. The second clerk watched as Eze walked over to the beer section, grabbed a tall can of Budweiser, and walked out of the gas station. The first clerk, who also noticed Eze, followed him out.

Eze was making his way back to a late-2000s green Pontiac Torrent (a midsized sport-utility vehicle) that he arrived in, the clerks told police. The clerk asked Eze from several feet back if he'd paid for the beer, valued at under $5.

The clerk told police that Eze responded by saying, "suck it and pay for it." At that point, the clerks said that the gas station's manager told the clerks to call police.

Lunsford and Arbogast attempted to subdue Eze

According to an affidavit provided by the AG's office on Tuesday, at approximately 4:32 p.m., Lunsford arrived at the scene in his marked police car. A minute later Lunsford made initial contact with the driver of a green/turquoise Pontiac SUV where, according to the affidavit, Eze, who was shirtless, was in the passenger seat.

Eze allegedly told the officer he walked into the store with a beer in his hand and when he walked out store employees started harassing him. Eze told Lunsford that he could check the cameras to confirm it and Lunsford asked for his identification, according to the affidavit. Eze then told the officer he did not have identification but provided a false name, Pete Ezer, when asked by the officer for his name and date of birth, according to the affidavit.

At approximately 4:36 p.m., Lunsford spoke with a gas station employee, who claimed Eze did not have a beer when he walked in. Lunsford did not seek to view surveillance footage and called for an additional unit. Lunsford returned to his police unit and ran the information Eze provided through the National Crime Information Center but was unable to confirm an identity based on the name Eze provided.

At approximately 4:43 p.m., Lunsford returned to the Pontiac to confirm the name and date of birth, at which time Eze said his name was "Eser." Lunsford returned to his unit and ran the name Pete Eser, which also was not on file.

At approximately 4:36 p.m., Arbogast arrived on scene.

At around 4:47 p.m., Lunsford and Arbogast approached the Pontiac on the passenger side and asked Eze to step out of the car, according to the affidavit. When Eze responded that he didn't want to get out of the car, Lunsford allegedly said he was not asking. When Eze asked why he needed to get out of the car, Lunsford allegedly grabbed Eze's right wrist with his right hand and said they could not confirm the identity provided.

When asked by Arbogast to cooperate, Eze replied, "Yes," according to the affidavit.

Arbogast then removed a closed pocketknife from Eze's lap as Eze was standing up. Eze said he was not reaching for anything and both hands were visible from the view of Lunsford's body camera.

According to the affidavit, it was then that both men, Arbogast who was behind Eze with his arms around his abdomen, fall backwards to the ground.

Lunsford was attempting to hold Eze's arms and was positioned behind Eze. At some point during the struggle, Arbogast's non-lethal weapon fell from its holster and was on the ground between Arbogast and Eze's right hand.

According to the affidavit, Eze had the non-lethal weapon first in his left hand and then in his right hand when Lunsford struck him in the face with an open hand strike with his left hand, knocking Eze off balance.

At that moment Eze was on the ground with the CEW, which had not been discharged, in his right hand pointed away from the officers when Lunsford drew his duty weapon and fired a single shot to the left side of Eze's head, killing him.

In an August 2022 press conference following the shooting, former Police Chief Miguel Dominguez said officers had been overpowered by Eze before one of the officers shot him in the back of the head.

Eze's family has since filed a lawsuit against the city. That lawsuit is pending resolution.

LCPD placed the two officers, whose names were not released to the media at the time of the shooting, on paid leave as part of the investigation.

City's attorney responds

Torrez said the next step with the criminal case will be a probable cause determination through either a preliminary hearing or grand jury.

Robles said the arresting documents presented by the AG on Tuesday did not include all of the facts.

"The AGs task is not to obtain convictions, but to achieve justice. They are missing exculpatory evidence and that is a concern to me as a lawyer that all of the facts are not presented. The alternative methods of force that could have been used were not going to stop Eze from doing what Officer Lunsford believed him to be doing," Robles said.

Robles said the arresting documents were missing information from initial police reports and officer interviews. Robles said that Eze tried to unholster Arbogast's duty weapon, but did unholster the officer's non-lethal weapon and had his finger on the trigger and was in the process of turning around during the struggle to face Arbogast when Lunsford fired his weapon.

"They said the tazer was in his hand," Robles said. "His finger was in the trigger. It's a dual use weapon that can be used twice in succession. The officer was faced with someone who could incapacitate him. Deadly force was used because that was the reasonable choice Lunsford had."

When asked if Lunsford had been accused of using excessive force in the past, family attorney Shannon Kennedy said he had, but due to a confidentiality order involving a civil lawsuit against the City filed in May, Lunsford's disciplinary file could not be discussed.

"That is part of the problem with the City of Las Cruces," said Joe Kennedy, also acting as an Eze family attorney. "In order to get a personnel file and the disciplinary history, we had to agree to a confidentiality order so we can't right now talk about that disciplinary history."

Kennedy said they are in the early stages of the discovery phase of the lawsuit.

"The Kennedy’s filed an IPRA (Inspection of Public Records Act) lawsuit and people often dispute what is IPRA'd and what is not," Robles said. "That's not to say they don't have a valid IPRA claim, but to turn it into a cover up is a big stretch."

Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @jpgroves.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico AG announces charges against Las Cruces Police officer