In recently released body camera footage, a New Mexico police officer shot and wounded a man who pointed a rifle at police during a traffic stop in March.
The incident happened just before 7 p.m. March 28 when Española police responded to reports of a white pickup truck pulled over to the side of the road with a driver slumped behind the wheel, KRQE-TV reports. When police reached the scene, they found a man—identified as Hilario Baca, 56—still in the truck.
As Officer Chris Garcia got closer to the vehicle, another officer shouted out a warning about a rifle that Baca appeared to have. According to the criminal complaint, Baca was seen apparently grabbing “a long metal item."
Garcia ordered Baca to drop the rifle multiple times. When the man didn't comply, Garcia quickly retreated from the truck, and another officer—Sgt. James Mayers—opened fire at Baca.
In the released body camera footage, Mayers details the incident to Chief Mizel Garcia at the scene minutes after the shooting. Mayers said he began shooting when Baca pointed his rifle out a truck window.
“Soon as we got out, he started to pull this gun out the window and started to point it towards us,” he said. “Wasn’t listening to commands to drop the gun, to drop the gun. Soon as he got the gun all the way out the window, … I shot.”
Baca was taken to the hospital and treated for at least one gunshot wound. He was in court Monday and arraigned on a charge of aggravated assault on a peace officer (deadly weapon).
The New Mexico State Police are investigating the shooting.
