Officer-involved shooting

this is a still shot from video recorded on one of the officer’s lapel pin cameras. you see him wielding a large hunting knife. police say torres refused to drop the knife and lunged at the officers. that’s when officers shot him. torres later died at the hospital. thunder map the shooting happened around 4-30 yesterday afternoon near the 13-hundred block of lohman avenue. it all started after a clerk reported someone had robbed a store and stolen a pick-up truck. a witness who was stopped near the lohman avenue overpass at i-25 recorded this video of the incident. it appears to shows three officers approach a man on lohman avenue directly above the i- 25 overpass. you can then hear numerous gun shots. today the las cruces police department held a news conference with more information about why officers opened fire. abc-7’s jamie warren was there.. she’s live from our new mexico mobile newsroom. jamie? rick and estela, we learned today torres was holding a large knife in one hand and a beer in the other when he approached officers. at a news conference here today police chief jaime montoya says every time an incident like this happens there is a use of force investigation. he says it will have two parts. first there’s a criminal one which is underway now, then there’s an administrative one where they look at department policy. pkg las cruces police chief jaime montoya :32:45 when they’re faced with a deadly force situation whether it be a knife a bat a gun they feel their life is in danger or your life is in danger they can use that force to protect you and themselves chief montoya showed us the hunting knife officers say torres was holding when he lunged at them. here you can see him grasping it in his hand in this still photo from one of the officers’ lapel pin camera. ;50:38:09 standup jamie warren police say the incident started around here on the 1300 block of lohman avenue. they say an 86 year old man called them saying he had been robbed and someone stole his white pick up truck. police also believe he was in the process of opening a locksmith shop and here we found keys laying on the ground along with keys we also saw tire tracks dan trujillo lcpd spokesman :29:12 with officers still at the initial crime scene they observed the white pick up truck role by there the same one and so the officers began to pursue that vehicle that’s when they ended up here at the i-25 overpass, where they say torres parked the truck. montoya when officers requested him to drop his knife he did not do so when he lunged at the officers they were forced to use deadly force the officers are on paid administrative leave. police would not tell us today how long they’ve been with the department or whether they had been involved in use of force incidents in the past. police still want to talk to witnesses. if you saw anything your asked to call