ALBUQUERQUE – Attorneys for a retired Albuquerque police detective on trial in the killing of a homeless camper presented him Wednesday as a veteran, well-trained officer who had been fired at by suspects but never used his own weapon in the line of duty until the shooting that resulted in charges against him.
The profile of Keith Sandy came in contrast to a special prosecutor’s vastly different take on his nearly two-decade law enforcement career with the New Mexico State Police and the Albuquerque Police Department that ended after he and ex-Officer Dominique Perez fatally shot James Boyd in March 2014.
Sandy has been described by special prosecutor Randi McGinn as a detective who was eager to impress other officers in his elite but controversial unit established to target violent career criminals when she says he inserted himself into the standoff with Boyd, who suffered from mental illness.
She faults Sandy for being at the center of a series of flawed decisions – from interupting negotiations between Boyd and an officer trained in crisis intervention to rushing a failed plan to take the camper into custody with less-lethal force.
McGinn also has played for jurors another officer’s dashcam recording in which Sandy is overheard calling Boyd a “lunatic” while saying he would use a stun gun on him about 90 minutes before he and Perez opened fire.
“It was just a word I used,” Sandy testified. “I regret saying it deeply ... I have not used the word since.”
Both he and Perez are charged with second-degree murder in Boyd’s death, which touched off protests in New Mexico’s largest city in 2014. Each officer testified in his own defense Wednesday, with Perez’s testimony finishing in the morning and Sandy’s resuming in the afternoon.
Their testimony marks the first time either has spoken publicly about the shooting that spurred calls for the U.S. Justice Department to speed an investigation into accusations of excessive force at the hands of local police.
That investigation later found a “culture of aggression” within the Albuquerque Police Department and set the stage for a settlement agreement to overhaul how officers interact with the mentally ill and people in crisis.
