Officials detail Albuquerque police shooting that left bystanders injured by officers' gunfire

Albuquerque Police Department officials detailed a police shooting last month where officers opened fire on a knife-wielding man — killing him while also striking two bystanders in Northeast Albuquerque.

Officers Brenda Johnson, Eric Wilensky, Violet Baca and Christian Cordova fatally shot Jeramiah Salyards, 25, and also shot and injured two men standing near him — shooting one of the bystanders four times near a bus stop on Louisiana.

The four officers joined APD at different times between 2014 and 2019 and only one, Cordova, had been involved in a prior shooting. Officials said none of the officers have returned to duty.

The department held a briefing Wednesday on two fatal police shootings, which happened in less than a week of each other in June.

"If I could use one word to describe both scenes: chaos," APD Chief Harold Medina said during a briefing Wednesday. "I mean, you could clearly tell that these incidents escalated extremely quickly."

Medina said the department would be assessing the officers' tactics in the shooting — particularly that they appeared to fire in the general direction of Salyards as well as bystanders.

Medina said one of the rules police have ingrained when it comes to deadly force is "be sure of your target and what is beyond it."

"Those are questions that we're going to have to answer during the administrative investigation, like what was in line? What was the officers perceptions? What was going through their mind at that time? So we do have to answer some of those questions," he said. "And when the investigation comes out, we should have some answers as to what the officers are observing, why shots were fired, what they saw and why it was necessary at the moment with these individuals in line."

Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock, with APD's Investigative Enhancement Division, detailed the June 29 police shooting and released lapel video and photo evidence.

Hartsock said police responded around 9:25 p.m. to the McDonald's at San Pedro and Lomas. He said officers found a man who had been stabbed multiple times in the neck and face while in the drive-thru lane.

The man told police he was giving Salyards, who he hadn't met before, a ride and buying him McDonald's when Salyards "said sorry" and stabbed him in the neck.

"Jeramiah then fled the scene," Hartsock said.

He said witnesses told officers a man with a knife matching Salyards' description was "just down the street" at Lomas and Louisiana. Hartsock said officers went to the area and spotted Salyards, telling him to drop the knife.

He said Salyards crossed the street to a bus stop where three men were hanging out.

Lapel video showed Salyards walked toward the men, who appeared to be trying to leave as several officers yelled different things, like "stop," "drop the knife" and "you're going to get shot."

The video showed Salyards waved his arms rapidly toward the three men, apparently holding a knife in one hand, before officers opened fire. Police continued firing as Salyards goes toward one of the men who fell over — having apparently been struck by officers' gunfire.

Lapel video showed Salyards kept on his feet as police unloaded a volley of gunfire while one of the men huddled on the ground in the fetal position, feet away from Salyards. Bullets can be seen striking the ground around the man as Salyards is also apparently hit by bullets.

The video showed police continued to point their guns at Salyards after he's fallen to the ground — with the bystander still laying behind him. At one point, Salyards appeared to try to get up and police fired another two gunshots at him, leading him to crumple to the sidewalk.

Although Salyards can be seen approaching and, at one point amidst the gunfire, reaching toward one of the men, it is unclear if he was trying to stab anyone.

"It's very unclear," Medina said of Salyards' intentions.

He added, "We've had the luxury of sitting here viewing four different videos, but our officers are out there in real time... they're making a decision that they didn't have the luxury to sit back and look at this, sit, think about it and make a decision based off of that."

Hartsock said Salyards was "raising a knife above the shoulders and head" when officers fired.

"We believe he already was willing to use that to stab someone else and every officer there knew that as they approached him," he said.

Salyards was previously sentenced to three years in prison for the stabbing of a Albuquerque bus driver in 2020 and was released just over a month before his death.

An online obituary for Salyards said he died "due to mental illness unforeseen through the eyes of others."

"He was so loved by everyone he met and so misunderstood by many," according to the obituary. "Jeramiah loved music, long walks, riding his bike, most of all he loved his family he lived up to his name he gave what ever he had to others."

The obituary stated, "Jeramiah never said Goodbye, he always ended his conversations with: I love you, See you later.'"

One of the bystanders hit by officers' gunfire was shot in the knee and the other was shot four times and severely injured. Officials said that man is still going through rehabilitation from those gunshot wounds.

Medina said Salyards created the scenario that put innocent people in the path of officers' bullets.

"Both of these individuals, in my mind, are individuals that should not have been out in the community in the first place," he said. "... I've said it over and over again, substance abusers should be getting substance abuse help. People with mental health concerns should be getting a mental health resources. But when an individual crosses the line and becomes violent, it is of the utmost importance, if we're going to make this community safe, that they are held accountable, and that they're removed for the appropriate amount of time from the community."