Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office (BCSO) officials provided a press update Monday morning on an officer-involved shooting that occurred on September 20th, 2022 and ended with the death of the suspect.
Prior to the details of this shooting being shared, BCSO Sheriff Manny Gonzales III said that deputies are encountering more and more individuals that are in a “rest” state when officers find them and that when these individuals wake up, it often escalates the situation rapidly.
“It’s becoming more frequent that our deputies are coming in contact with people that are either hunched over or passed out or we’re getting calls for service in regards to people that are down and out, this is very similar to this call. What we wanted to bring to the attention of the public is that once these people are coming out of this state of rest, I'll call it that, they're unpredictable.”
In terms of this specific call, an officer was working a crash incident in the area of 2nd St. and Rio Bravo when a citizen flagged them down and informed them of an individual who was passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle at a gas station off of Rio Bravo.
At approximately 1:22pm, deputies attempted to make contact with the suspect in the car.
The suspect, who was later identified as Colby Atkins was described as being unresponsive. A total of four deputies eventually arrive at the gas station and attempt to immobilize Atkin’s vehicle by blocking it in with their cars.
Chief Deputy Nicholas Huffmyer said this was due in part to what Sheriff Gonzales had alluded to earlier in the press conference that these unresponsive individuals can be unpredictable.
“They make an attempt to preemptively immobilize the vehicle there at the gas station as the sheriff mentioned. More and more as these individuals wake up from being passed out and the first thing they encounter is a law enforcement presence, there seems to be this inclination to flee immediately and depending on what their particular state of mind is. That can often be a violent interaction and it’s certainly very unsafe for the general motoring public.”
The video of the officers encountering Atkins was then played and showed the suspect fleeing the gas station shortly after being awoken.
Deputies then proceed to chase Atkins as he runs a red light and drives into traffic, where he struck two civilian vehicles.
Atkins eventually disables his own vehicle at 1:26pm according to Huffmyer after striking the two civilian vehicles and colliding into a curb.
After his vehicle came to rest, Atkins was then in and out of the car, refusing to comply with officers.
Deputies then fired bean bag rounds at the vehicle’s windows in an attempt to improve visibility, however, the windows were heavily tinted and did not break when shot.
Atkins shouted at deputies for a period of time, then pointed what was described as a “black object” at a civilian’s vehicle, while adopting what Huffmyer said was a “shooting platform”.
It was at this point that deputies discharged their firearms, striking Atkins, and life-saving measures were performed at the scene.
The black object was later discovered to be a flashlight.
A total of six deputies were involved in this shooting and all have returned to active duty.
It was discovered in a search of Atkin’s vehicle that there were drugs, a series of stolen debit and credit cards and the car itself was stolen.
Atkins himself has been released from federal prison in 2020 for a bank robbery and also had drug related charges, violation of probation and resisting and evading officers.
BCSO officials said the investigation into this incident is still on-going and the full finding of this investigation will be shared when it is completed.