8/25/2021- 9:25 p.m.
Police have identified the first man who was shot by officers last week as 33-year-old Eric Padilla.
Padilla was shot Aug. 15 by officers who were investigating an auto theft. The officers said Padilla “produced a firearm” on them. He died at the scene.
The Journal could not reach family members on Wednesday.
On Aug. 19 — four days after Padilla was killed — four officers and an armed robbery suspect were injured in a shoot-out along a busy Northeast Albuquerque street. Officer Mario Verbeck was critically injured and remains in the hospital, as does the suspect James Ramirez, of Los Angeles.Advertisement
On Aug. 20, Albuquerque police shot and critically injured David Martinez. They said he was armed with a rifle and attempting to carjack a truck when they shot him. Martinez was reportedly on life support earlier this week.
Deputy Chief Eric Garcia said officers were conducting an auto theft investigation that led them to the Walmart in the 2200 block of Wyoming NE.
The officers watched a man and woman get out of a stolen vehicle, Garcia said, and when they approached the pair on Menaul near Northeastern, Padilla fled. He said Padilla “produced a firearm on the officers and the officers fired their weapons.”
The woman was detained at the scene. An Albuquerque Police Department spokesman said she was not charged with a crime and was released.
Padilla has a lengthy history of receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles and other crimes, according to court records.
He was one of seven people shot by Albuquerque police officers this year. Three of those people died.
