Following a New Mexico police misconduct Judge Theresa Baca awarded $4.25 million to the family of a man fatally wounded by an Albuquerque Police Department officer in 2009 and criticized the department’s training methods as “designed to result in unreasonable use of deadly force.”
Andrew Lopez was nineteen years old and unarmed when he was shot and killed by an APD officer on February 8, 2009. The Lopez family, who was represented by the Albuquerque personal injury attorneys, Fine Law Firm, received no offers of settlement before trial.
The Albuquerque Police Department had contended that Andrew Lopez had an automobile ashtray in his possession and that the APD officer who fired the fatal shot believed that the ashtray was a gun. In addition, at least one Albuquerque Police Department officer contended that Andrew Lopez was in the process of “committing suicide by cop.”
It the hope of the Lopez family and the Fine Law Firm that the verdict will result in better training of Albuquerque Police Department officers and a policy of being more careful before using deadly force.