ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The district attorney for Bernalillo County says a panel of three district attorneys from elsewhere in New Mexico will review a former Albuquerque police officer’s fatal shooting of a 19-year-old woman to recommend whether he should be prosecuted.
A team of special prosecutors decided last February against prosecuting ex-Officer Jeremy Dear for shooting Mary Hawkes, but the Albuquerque Journal reports that District Attorney Raul Torrez wrote to a lawyer for Hawkes’ family that another review is warranted.
Dear has said he shot Hawkes during a foot chase after she pointed a gun at him, but a lawyer for Hawkes’ family said the prior review overlooked key pieces of evidence.
Dear’s lawyer, Thomas Grover, said any problems with the investigation were not Dear’s fault and that Torrez’s decision is based on politics.
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