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New Mexico police officer was charged with involuntary manslaughter Friday for his role in the February killing of a 40-year-old man after he used a neck restraint. - According to local media, the Las Cruces Police Department officer had been on administrative leave since the February 29 incident and was terminated on Friday.
- Neck restraints have been at the subject of nationwide protests over racism and police brutality after a white police officer in Minneapolis used a neck restraint on 46-year-old
George Floyd who died after the neck restraint was used.
A police officer in Las Cruces, New Mexico was charged Friday with involuntary manslaughter for the February death of a man after the local medical examiner ruled his death was the result of asphyxial injuries sustained when the officer used a neck restraint.
The officer, Christopher Smelser, was also fired from the Las Cruces Police Department, according to a report from The Alamogordo Daily News. Smelser had been employed by the LCPD since 2016 and was on administrative leave since Valenzuela's February 29 death, according to the report.
The man, identified as Antonio "Tony" Valenzuela, 40, died on February 29 after an early morning encounter with officers. According to the report, Valenzuela had an open warrant for a parole violation and began to flee from police at a traffic stop just after 2:30 a.m.
According to police documents obtained by KFOX14, police officers said they pulled over a GMC pickup truck, which contained three occupants, for expired insurance. Valenzuela seemed "nervous" and had repeatedly asked other occupants to let him out of the vehicle, police said. Eventually, Valenzuela fled on foot.
Police officers employed the use of a taser on the 40-year-old — either two or three times — according to police reports from the incident. Eventually, Smelser used a vascular neck restraint to restrain Valenzuela.
The medical examiner's report found methamphetamine also played a role in his death. The drug can cause a rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, and create an increased demand for oxygen, which likely placed stress on Valenzuela's cardiovascular system, according to the report.
Police use of force — and neck restraints in particular — has been the subject of nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, who was killed in the custody of Minneapolis police officers. In a video of the altercation that preceded Floyd's death, a police officer was seen holding his knee to Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes — even while Floyd said he couldn't breathe and even after Floyd lost consciousness.
On Friday, negotiators for the city of Minneapolis announced they had reached an agreement to ban the use of chokeholds by police and to require police to report and intervene anytime they witnessed unauthorized use of force by another officer. An investigation by NBC
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday said he was removing the technique used in Floyd's death from California law enforcement training and was endorsing a bill to ban its use.
A request for comment sent Saturday to the LCPD about whether the tactic was permitted by the police force was not returned.
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