A New Mexico city reaches $20 million settlement in the death of a woman shot by a police officer

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — The city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, has reached a $20 million settlement with the family of a grandmother fatally shot by a police officer last year, according to The Associated Press and local media.

Felipe Hernandez, then working for the Las Cruces Police Department, fatally shot Teresa Gomez, 45, in her car in October 2023. Her family filed a lawsuit in federal court against the city, the police chief, and three members of the police force.

The settlement is the city’s largest agreement in a civil lawsuit, according to CNN affiliate KFOX14. The parties reached a settlement on November 7, according to a court filing. CNN has reached out to the city and an attorney representing the Gomez family for comment.

“This settlement should be understood as a statement of the City’s profound feeling of loss for the death of Gomez and of the City’s condolences to her family,” the city of Las Cruces said in a news release sent Friday, according to AP.

Hernandez, who was fired from the police department months after the shooting, faces a second-degree murder charge, court records show. He has pleaded not guilty. His trial is scheduled to begin June 2. CNN has reached out to Hernandez’s attorney for comment.

Gomez was sitting in her car when Hernandez accused her and her passenger of trespassing, footage from the officer’s body-worn camera shows. He then shouted commands laced with the F-word at her and threatened to arrest her, “tase” her and make her life “a living hell” if she didn’t comply with his plan to investigate, the footage shows.

After Hernandez approached Gomez on a bicycle as she sat in her car, Gomez told him she had been visiting someone at the address and said she was looking for her misplaced keys, the body-camera footage shows. Gomez and the officer discussed why she and the passenger were parked outside a public housing complex – a place Hernandez said the passenger was not supposed to be. Gomez said multiple times she was unaware of any visitor rules, the video shows.

After Hernandez repeatedly asked Gomez to leave her car, Gomez stood outside it for a while, answering some of the officer’s questions, the video shows. Her passenger was never asked to get out or questioned in a similar way.

The grandmother eventually found her car keys and, with the officer’s permission, sat back in the driver’s seat, according to the video and the lawsuit.

Half a minute later, she engaged the engine and, with her car door still open, shifted into reverse, pulled back, then put the car into drive, the video shows.

Hernandez shouted “stop!” three times, then fired his gun several times, the video shows.

The lawsuit alleges Gomez presented “no threat of any physical injury to Hernandez or anyone else” and Hernandez “left her to bleed out in her car as he turned away from her gasping body to retrieve his bicycle and flashlight.”

The suit claims Las Cruces “has adopted a de facto policy of indifference to the escalation of encounters between its officers and the public” and it “it allows officers to use deadly force in situations in which there is no threat of great bodily harm or death posed by the subject receiving deadly force.”

The complaint also alleges city employees disproportionately use excessive force against people of color – like Gomez, who was Hispanic.

Gomez’s sister, Angela Lozano-Gutierrez, previously told CNN the video of her mother’s encounter with Hernandez was “shocking.”

“We may never get the apology we need,” Lozano-Gutierrez said. “We’re just trying to cling to each other, and we just keep telling ourselves: She would want us to continue to live to be happy.”

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CNN’s Alisha Ebrahimji contributed to this report.