EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office has submitted first-degree murder charges against Otero County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Diaz in the death last summer of 17-year-old Elijah Hadley, the office confirmed on Monday, Jan. 13.
The charges are being submitted after a “thorough review of the evidence,” the Bernalillo County DA’s Office said.
On June 25 last year, Hadley was involved in an officer-involved shooting when he was walking along U.S. Highway 70 near the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Diaz responded on a welfare check call when he “opened fire, killing Hadley,” the brief news release said.
The New Mexico State Police said that Hadley had allegedly pointed an airsoft gun at the deputy when he was shot and killed, according to the initial reports sent out to media last summer.
“Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman and Chief Deputy District Attorney Natalie Lyon spoke to the Hadley family this afternoon and informed them of the decision to charge Deputy Diaz. District Attorney Bregman and Chief Deputy Lyon will be prosecuting this case,” read the short statement.
Last July, prosecutors with the 12th Judicial District in Alamogordo “conflicted out this case” and asked the Bernalillo County DA’s Office to accept it and determine whether prosecution was appropriate, according to the Bernalillo County DA’s Office.
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