Officers Were Acting in Self-Defense

This letter is in response to the headline “Family: APD 1,000 Times Negligent.”

If it was possible, I would volunteer to serve on the jury that will hear the case involving the family of Christopher Torres versus the Albuquerque Police Department.

I understand that the family is grieving and sad about the death of Christopher Torres. I understand that they want to blame someone. I understand that they loved him and he may have been a good person some of the time. But he was not a good person lately when he attacked so many innocent people in Albuquerque.

The family had to know this was not going to end well for Christopher Torres. The family needs to look at themselves. How is it that the family knew Christopher Torres was paranoid schizophrenic and apparently did little to get him institutionalized? … How is it that the family knew that Christopher Torres attacked an innocent man in front of his family and tried to get his gun in a restaurant and did nothing to keep him confined? … If they did not get help, the least they could do was take away his car and keep him homebound to protect himself and the citizens of Albuquerque.

The family instead turns on APD and thinks that officers should have contacted the family first before they encountered Christopher Torres. Who else expects that they should have their family tipped off before the police do their job?

This man was dangerous. He was not just mentally ill. He was mentally ill and a danger to society. That means that it was the family’s job to have him committed, instead of providing excuses and blaming others. They are the ones that knew the most about this dangerous man.

On April 12, two APD officers went to the location where Christopher Torres was known to be with the sole intent of attempting to serve a warrant for his arrest for a road rage incident the week before. They were trying to arrest Christopher Torres when he was shot and killed because he fought detectives and took one of their guns.

In this type of situation where the two detectives just expected to arrest someone, they did not pull their weapons first or threaten Christopher Torres with a Taser. Christopher Torres chose to struggle with the arresting officers and actually hit one in the face and caused visible damage before the other officer was able to fire and protect himself and his partner.

When will people learn that they have a responsibility to obey the commands of any law enforcement officer and not resist, fight, struggle or run?

It is the officer’s job to come home safe and alive to their family after doing their job. It is not their job to know the medical, personal and recent history of everyone they come in contact with.

Police officers cannot be psychiatrists and we should not train them to be.

If a person is threatening, it does not matter if they are mentally ill or not. The outcome would probably have been similar if SWAT had been called. This man wanted a fight and was not willing to be arrested.

Remember, this could have turned out much different. APD officers Michael King and Richard Smith were killed on Aug. 18, 2005, by John Hyde, a mentally ill man diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Christopher Torres’ brother, attorney Matthew Torres, has already used the defense that claims Christopher Torres is incompetent to stand trial. Hyde has been found incompetent to stand trial and is serving 179 years in the state mental hospital. But there are five dead people in his case.

If someone would interview the poor woman who was terrorized at the Paseo del Norte intersection on Feb. 17 by Christopher Torres when he jerked open her door and tried to pull her from her car, I am sure you would find out how frightened people can be of someone like him. Thankfully she survived the attack and was able to give police a license plate number to find him. Who knows what would have happened if she did not get away.

I am willing to bet that these recent incidents that got publicized are just the tip of the iceberg as far as his behavior goes. Thank you, APD, for doing your job. We just wish some families would do the same.