Officer indicted in 2015 death of man shot in back
An El Paso police officer was indicted on a manslaughter charge in connection with the 2015 fatal shooting of a man while responding to an alleged burglary.
Mando Kenneth Gomez, who was a 10-year veteran with the department at the time of the shooting, was indicted Feb. 28 by a grand jury on one count of manslaughter in connection with the death of Erik Emmanuel Salas Sanchez. Neither the Police Department nor the District Attorney's Office announced the indictment in February, and police never released Gomez's name after the shooting.
Gomez, 37, appears to be the first El Paso police officer ever indicted as a result of an on-duty shooting. A police spokesman in 1996 said no officer had ever been indicted for an on-duty shooting, and the El Paso Times could find no record of such an indictment since then. An officer was indicted in an off-duty shooting in 2011, but the charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon was dismissed earlier this year.
Salas was shot three times in the back by Gomez as the officer responded to a report of a burglary at 9:11 p.m. April 29, 2015, at a home in the 300 block of Jesuit Drive, according to court documents and an autopsy report obtained by the El Paso Times.
Enrique Moreno, the attorney for the Salas family, said the indictment is one step closer to bringing justice to the family.
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“The family of Erik Emmanuel Salas-Sanchez is respectful of the indictment brought by the grand jury,” Moreno said in a statement on behalf of the family. “For almost two years, they have lived with a profound loss and pain. They have also lived with the knowledge that Erik’s death was unjustified and senseless. They have waited patiently for the judicial process to move forward.”
He added, “The indictment is an important step in their search for justice.”
Gomez's attorney, Jim Darnell, couldn't be reached for comment.
Gomez was booked into El Paso County Jail almost a month after the indictment, according to jail records.
He was booked into jail on a bond totaling $50,000 on March 22. He posted a cash surety bond of $25,000 on the same day and was released, records show.
El Paso Police Department spokesman Sgt. Enrique Carrillo said Gomez was assigned to administrative duties. According to a Police Department website, Gomez is a training specialist at the police academy.
El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said his office is handling the case like all other cases and will move forward with prosecution.
Police policy questions
El Paso police officials did not release Gomez's name at the time of the shooting, during the investigation or after the indictment was handed up.
Previously, department officials have repeatedly said after several officer-involved shootings that a department policy prevented them from releasing the names of officers involved in shootings until after a grand jury had taken action.
In 2013, former police spokesman Sgt. Chris Mears told the El Paso Times that a policy prevented the department from releasing the officer’s name involved in the fatal shooting of handcuffed prisoner Daniel Saenz at the El Paso County Jail.
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Mears stated that the name would not be released until a grand jury had decided whether or not to charge the officer.
He cited the policy again in a 2014 officer-involved shooting.
Carrillo said on Monday that there was no department policy regarding releasing the names of officers involved in shootings, including when and if the officer is indicted.
When questioned about the discrepancy, Carrillo replied in an email, “There was no ambiguity, the answers are clear, we have no further comment.”
Salas shot in mother's home
Salas was shot in his mother's home April 29, 2015. The next day, police issued a news release saying that two police officers responded to a burglary-in-progress call in the 300 block of Jesuit and confronted Salas inside his home.
They claimed that Salas allegedly grabbed a metal object and rushed at one of the officers. The officer fired a Taser at Salas but it did not make full contact, according to a custodial death report.
Salas then “stopped, turned his attention to another officer and charged at him. This officer fired his service weapon striking (Salas) multiple times,” the report states.
An autopsy report states that Salas suffered multiple gunshot wounds to “the back and right buttock that injured several vital organs/structures," which led to his death.
The report went on to state that two bullets entered about two feet below the head on the right and left sides of Salas' back, while the third bullet hit Salas on the right buttock.
Salas had "a therapeutic concentration of the antidepressant paroxetine" and "breakdown products of marijuana" in his system during the shooting, according to blood toxicology tests performed during the autopsy.
The shooting made international news because Salas was a legal immigrant from Mexico.
In 2015, the Mexican Foreign Ministry and the Mexican Consulate in El Paso urged for the El Paso County District Attorney's Office to investigate the shooting in an "exhaustive" manner.
Consulate officials declined to comment on the indictment on Monday.
Aaron Martinez may be reached at 546-6249; aamartinez@elpasotimes.com; @AMartinez31 on Twitter.