Prosecutors said Lunsford had shot Eze at point-blank range in a scuffle after police responded to a 911 call from a gas station attendant who reported that Eze had stolen beer.
Records compiled by Stinson, university colleagues and students through the Police Integrity Research Group show that 205 non-federal law enforcement officers have been arrested on criminal charges of homicide or manslaughter over the past 20 years, resulting in 66 convictions, 27 of them for manslaughter or homicide.
In pursuing a criminal charge against Lunsford, Torrez described the killing of Eze as a tragedy and “yet another example of poor police tactics resulting in an unjustifiable use of force to subdue an individual resisting arrest for the commission of a minor crime”.
A former police officer was found guilty on Wednesday of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of Presley Eze during a 2022 confrontation at a New Mexico gas station.
Officer Lunsford’s actions were not just a tragic lapse in judgment; they were an egregious abuse of power that cost Presley Eze his life,” Torrez said in a statement after the verdict was announced.
