El Paso Police have a habit of killing people who are having mental crises.
On July 13, 2025, Xavier Hernandez was apparently having a mental crisis on the freeway by the Yarbrough overpass. A concerned citizen reported a pedestrian on the freeway, and Police Officer Matthew Scott Abshier arrived with his body cam rolling.
You can watch the video at the CBS4Local.com. It’s horrific.
It’s been more than a year, and I’m thinking that the local Law & Order were hoping that if they ignored it, it would just go away. But now some activists are asking for accountability.
CBS4Local.com reports:
LULAC District IV held a press conference Thursday calling for accountability and transparency in the death of Xavier Guadalupe Hernandez, who died in El Paso police custody in July 2025.
. . .
Hernandez died July 13, 2025, following an encounter with officers on Interstate 10, after he appeared to have been suffering from a mental crisis.
The El Paso County Medical Examiner ruled Hernandez’s death a homicide and identified asphyxia caused by chest compression during law-enforcement subdual [sic] and restraint as the cause of death.
The DA’s office has had the EPPD investigation report for more than a year. I bet they’ve had the Texas Rangers investigation report for close to a year. But District Attorney James Montoya hasn’t presented this case to the Grand Jury yet.
Here’s a statement attributed to District Attorney James Montoya:
The death of Xavier Guadalupe Hernandez remains a tragedy. And I fully understand the community’s desire to see movement on the case one way or another.
Our office has received the investigations conducted by the El Paso Police Department and the Texas Rangers and has continued to work on the case since then.
While the case is pending, we cannot comment on it specifically. However, it is the policy of the DA’s office to present all in-custody deaths and officer-involved shootings to the grand jury of El Paso for the review and determination of potential criminal liability. And this case will be no exception. We will prevail.
Right. They’re going to present it to a grand jury. Just like they did when El Paso Police Officer Jose Flores shot handcuffed prisoner Danny Saenz in the back as he lay on the driveway of the sallyport of the El Paso County Jail. That incident was also captured on video. Officer Flores was no-billed and eventually he went back to work for El Paso’s finest.
Here’s what I read at your favorite website:
Do you suppose that District Attorney James Montoya will have more success after this case is presented to a Grand Jury? Remember, a competent District Attorney could get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich.
If he wanted an indictment. A competent District Attorney could also get a Grand Jury to no-bill a police officer even if he was captured on video shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the back, or compressing a prisoner to death in the emergency lane of Interstate 10, if a competent District Attorney didn’t want a jury, and the public, to see the case.
So I don’t have high expectations for the District Attorney’s case in front of a Grand Jury. I reckon that little bit of judicial theater will only whitewash the incident.
I guess protecting El Pasoans experiencing mental health crisis from the Police Department isn’t a priority for him.
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