By Ryan Boetel
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — No charges will be brought against the New Mexico State Police officer who shot and killed an armed suspect during an Albuquerque police standoff in the Northeast Heights in 2013, Second Judicial District Attorney Kari Brandenburg’s office announced Friday.
State Police officer Shane Todd shot 21-year-old Kendall Carroll at an apartment in the 13000 block of Constitution NE on March 19, 2013.
Carroll, who was wanted in connection with the shooting of Albuquerque police officer Ignas Darius in the lower back two days earlier, had barricaded himself in the apartment with his brother for several hours before the shooting.
Darius spent several days in a hospital before he was released. He has since returned to active duty, APD spokesman Tanner Tixier said.
Albuquerque police, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and State Police SWAT teams responded to the standoff, according to the shooting review.
At the apartment, Carroll and an APD officer exchanged gunfire, and the SWAT teams fired numerous volleys of tear gas canisters and flash bangs into the apartment, according to the review. Michael Carroll, Kendall’s brother, surrendered about halfway through the standoff.
Carroll was shot after he started to walk out of the apartment with a gun pointed at officers, according to the review. The .45-caliber gun used to shoot Darius was found at the scene, police said.
“He’s already shot at us. He’s shown his willingness to shoot at officers,” Todd said in an interview with police after the shooting. “I centered the crosshairs on his face, I pulled the trigger, I fired one round.”
Todd shot Carroll from a prone position from about the length of a football field away. He said he was in fear of other officers’ safety when he fired his weapon, according to his interview.
The bullet entered Carroll’s nose, traveled downward and was lodged in his lung, according to the autopsy report.
Note: Above body camera footage captures the shooting of Officer Ignas Darius two days prior to the standoff.
“Officer Todd saw Kendall Carroll come out of the apartment crouched in what the officer described as a ‘sneaky’ manner, with a gun in his hand. Knowing the above information, and seeing Kendall Carroll come out with a gun in his hand and move it in the direction of officers, Officer Todd perceived Kendall Carroll as a threat,” the Office of the District Attorney’s shooting review states.
Michael Hernandez, the APD officer who fired his weapon during the standoff, told investigators he and another officer had just been shot at before he fired his weapon. The district attorney’s office also announced Friday that no charges will be brought against Hernandez.
“As I engaged, my responsibility was to stop his actions,” Hernandez said in an interview with police after the shooting.
Todd, a SWAT officer, also shot and killed Ernest Attebery in Edgewood in January.
The Carroll shooting was the third fatal police shooting the district attorney’s office has ruled justified this year. The office previously decided not to bring charges against officers for the shooting deaths of Christopher Torres and Parrish Dennison.
Brandenburg, who is in her fourth term as district attorney, has never brought charges against a police officer involved in a shooting.
Copyright 2014 the Albuquerque Journal