Two Albuquerque police officers will face first-degree murder charges in last year’s shooting of a mentally ill, homeless man

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg filed criminal information papers Monday against New Mexico police officers, Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez, who fatally shot James Boyd, a homeless man on January 13, 2010; which means a grand jury investigation won’t be required. Authorities have said Boyd suffered from schizophrenia and possibly other mental disorders. Recent grand jury decisions in New York and Ferguson, Mo., not to charge police officers in the deaths of suspects, has resulted in protests across the nation against the U.S. grand jury system. Brandenburg says a preliminary hearing for Sandy and Perez has yet to be set.

Perez and Sandy are accused of fatally shooting James Boyd, 38, after a four-hour standoff. Video from an officer’s helmet camera showed the whole incident. Boyd, armed with two knives, appeared to surrender before he was shot and attacked by a police dog. Albuquerque police have been involved in more than 40 shootings, 27 of them fatal, since Boyd’s death. Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry has asked the Department of Justice to review the case, but no decision on federal charges has been announced.

Keith, as a police officer, had not only the right but the duty to defend a fellow officer from a mentally unstable, violent man wielding two knives.
-Sam Bregman, lawyer for Keith Sandy.

Boyd’s death was not included in the Department Of Justice investigation but was cited, along with Police Chief Gorden Eden’s comments stating, the shooting appeared justified because Boyd made a “threatening” move toward an officer with the dog who rushed him. Please be advised the following footage is extremely graphic, showing the moments before and after Boyd was murdered…You be the judge.

-Infinite Wiz (@InfiniteWiz)