LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A Las Cruces man is suspected of using a sword to kill his neighbor, telling other neighbors afterward that he “had to do it,” authorities said Thursday. Arturo Francisco Quintana, 31, is charged with first-degree felony murder in the death of 33-year-old Efren Valdez Gutierrez. He was being held without
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EL PASO, Texas — To examine whether there is racial profiling by El Paso police, ABC-7 filed a public records request and received copies of police reports from 2015 to 2019. The reports over the four year period showed whites in El Paso were stopped at higher rates than the percentage of whites in the
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EL PASO, Texas — A ‘Defund Police’ protest and a counter-protest in support of the El Paso Police Department took place Wednesday evening at Cleveland Square Park downtown. In the video player above, you can watch a summary of the protests. In the video player below, you can watch how those protests unfolded over a
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — New Mexico’s state Attorney General Hector Balderas on Wednesday called for police reforms amid protests throughout the nation over excessive force and a recent case in Las Cruces that has resulted in an officer facing manslaughter charges. Balderas said state lawmakers should create uniform use of force policies that would be
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EL PASO, Texas — A 32-year-old man has been arrested and is accused of assaulting his girlfriend and her daughter. Daniel Oporto was arrested on a warrant and taken into custody. El Paso County Sheriff’s deputies said they responded to reports of an assault over the weekend along the 14900 block of Whitetail Deer Drive
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Las Cruces police have released the identity of an 81-year-old man who was fatally shot after they said he fired multiple rounds at officers and struck a police vehicle. Authorities on Wednesday afternoon identified the man as Michael Seltzer of 926 N. Tornillo Street. The Monday afternoon deadly shooting of
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UPDATE: Two men have been arrested in last week’s Lower Valley murder, police said Wednesday, as they also identified the victim of what’s being called a drug-related slaying. 20–year-old Keith Arnold Swint was arrested in Florida and is being extradited to El Paso, while 25–year-old Devante Tyshawn Fuller was arrested in Horizon City and is
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EL PASO, Texas — An 18-year-old man was shot and seriously wounded early Wednesday in northeast El Paso. The shooting happened about 1 a.m. in the 4000 block of Moonlight Avenue near the intersection with Mercury. Police said in a statement that they found shooting victim Jose Martin Espinosa-Fortuna “sitting in a vehicle in the
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FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, New Jersey — A corrections officer who participated in a counter-protest to a Black Lives Matter demonstration in New Jersey in which people reenacted the death of George Floyd was suspended after the video was widely shared on social media. In the video, protesters march along a street in Franklin Township, Gloucester County,
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EL PASO, Texas — A ‘Defund Police’ protest and a counter-protest in support of the El Paso Police Department are planned for Wednesday evening at Cleveland Square Park downtown. During the days of protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, several videos emerged of alleged acts of police brutality.
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EL PASO, Texas — El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles has some strong words after County Commissioners voted this week to re-examine his office’s budget in the wake of highly publicized calls nationwide to defund police agencies. “You know you hear people calling defund law enforcement here in El Paso. Really? Here in El Paso?
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — James Davidson thought of the elderly man who lived a few doors down as so much more than a neighbor. “I was the closest thing to family he had here,” Davidson said. Davidson said he would cook for the man, who he identified as Mike. Mike would give him rides
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LAS CRUCES, New Meixco — The lawyer representing the family of a man who died after leading police on a foot chase said Tuesday that an involuntary manslaughter charge filed by prosecutors against the officer-involved amounted to a “slap on the wrist.” Attorney Sam Bregman called on Dona Ana County District Attorney Mark D’Antonio to
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A Las Cruces man sought by police for allegedly gunning down his own brother last month has been taken into custody after two weeks on the run, authorities said Tuesday. Federal marshals and state police captured 30-year-old Jaime Talamantes on Monday afternoon after receiving a tip about the fugitive’s location.
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EL PASO, Texas — The national conversation surrounding the potential for defunding police departments has come to the Borderland. A preliminary discussion about police funding was opened on Monday by El Paso County Commissioner David Stout during the commissioner’s meeting. He spoke about the concept of ‘participatory budgeting’ while the commissioners debated a resolution aimed
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PORT ARTHUR, Texas — A statewide Amber Alert was issued Monday evening for a 7-month-old Texas boy who police say was abducted following a shooting earlier in the day. ABC affiliate KLTV reports that a woman who was shot around 3:30 p.m. in Port Arthur told police that the boy’s father, identified as 26-year-old Nathan
Continue Reading LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — An 81-year-old man was shot and killed Monday during a standoff with police that included an exchange of gunfire. The deadly incident unfolded in the 900 block of N. Tornillo Street in the Mesquite Historic District after officers were sent there around noon on a report of a man with suicidal
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — Las Cruces police on Monday released a photograph of an officer accused of involuntary manslaughter as video of the deadly encounter with a man who led police on a foot chase also came to light. “I’m going to f***ing choke you out, bro,” Officer Christoper Smelser is heard saying to
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A Las Cruces family is speaking out now that former police officer Christopher Smelser, connected to the death of Antonio Valenzuela, is being charged with involuntary manslaughter. It has been four months since Valenzuela died, with then-Officer Smelser restraining him with a controversial neck restraint. “What they did to him
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Nine members of the Minneapolis City Council on Sunday announced that they intend to defund and dismantle the city’s police department following the police killing of George Floyd. Council President Lisa Bender told CNN that with the nine votes the city council members would have a veto-proof majority of the council’s 13
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UPDATE: As of Sunday afternoon, state police Lt. Mark Soriano wrote in an email to ABC-7: “(Former LCPD Officer Christopher) Smelser is still at large. New Mexico State Police continues to look for Smelser.” Meanwhile, the attorney for Smelser told ABC-7 that she “still (has) not been given a copy of the arrest warrant or
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RAEFORD, North Carolina — Thousands of protesters are pouring onto the streets of dozens of American cities Saturday as George Floyd’s life is celebrated at an intimate memorial service in North Carolina. After hundreds of mourners lined up Saturday for a public viewing in Raeford — near Floyd’s birthplace in Fayetteville — his family sang
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EL PASO, Texas — A body was found in a canal near the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park area on Saturday and police investigators were scouring the scene. The discovery occurred just before 1 p.m. in canal #37 in the 10700 block of Socorro Road, right near the Texas Department of Agriculture offices in the Lower
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SOCORRO, Texas — A gun battle between Socorro police and a “suicidal individual” late Friday night ended with the man’s death, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday. The shoot-out happened in the 10900 block of Burt Road around 10:20 p.m. after police responded to a call of a “suicidal individual in possession of
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EL PASO, Texas — A group first formed in 2014 that calls themselves ‘White Coats for Black Lives’ held a peaceful protest Friday at UMC. Dr. Nagela Saint-Thomas, a pediatrician at El Paso Children’s Hospital, organized the group to protest the death of George Floyd. “As physicians, police brutality against black lives is a public
Continue Reading LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A Las Cruces police officer is being charged with involuntary manslaughter after he used a controversial neck restraint that led to a suspect’s death back in February, prosecutors announced Friday. The charges against Officer Christopher Smelser came after the New Mexico state medical investigator hours earlier had ruled the death
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BUFFALO, N.Y. — Prosecutors were investigating Friday after a video captured police in Buffalo shoving a 75-year-old man who then fell and cracked his head, a confrontation that resulted in the suspension of two officers. Video from public radio station WBFO of Thursday night’s encounter, which happened near the conclusion of protests over the death
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Negotiators for the city of Minneapolis agreed with the state Friday to ban the use of chokeholds by police and to require officers to report and intervene anytime they see an unauthorized use of force by another officer. The changes are part of a stipulation posted online between the city and the
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(Editor’s note: ABC-7 has confirmed that Andre Jefferson was charged with a probation violation in March and has a prior conviction a couple years ago for petty theft.) EL PASO, Texas — Hundreds made their way out to Memorial Park in central El Paso this past Sunday demanding justice for George Floyd. Out of the
Continue Reading MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — A memorial service for George Floyd, to mourn his death and honor his life, was held Thursday at the North Central University in Minneapolis, the first of a handful of services to honor him. One of Floyd’s brothers, Philonise Floyd, remembered him as someone everyone wanted to be around because of the way he
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