This man was shot dead by police who were just supposed to perform welfare check

Albuquerque​ police officers fatally shot a man after they were initially called to his house to check if he was OK.

On 30 March, the daughter of 52-year-old Valente Acosta-Bustillos called Albuquerque police to perform a welfare check on her father as he hadn’t answered his phone in a couple of days.

When police arrived, Acosta-Bustillos was doing work in his garden with his shovel.

Two officers appeared to calmly speak with the Albuquerque resident in Spanish for a couple of minutes.

Then one of them ran Acosta-Bustillos’ name and found out he had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. This is because he was recently charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and failed to show up to his court date.

When officers attempted to arrest him, the 52-year-old ran into his home and Officer Joseph Bush warned him to drop his shovel:

Back up or you’re going to be tased. Put [the shovel] down or you’re going to be tased.

After not complying immediately, the officer tased the man. It failed to immobilise him so Officer Bush’s partner, Officer Edgar Sandoval, shot the 52-year-old three times.

Instead of offering immediate help to the injured man, the two officers stood over him as he cried out in his bathroom in pain.

The two had to wait for “additional units to come” because they didn’t have any gloves to help apply pressure to the victim’s wounds.

As the officer wearing the body cam leans into the bathroom to see the blood-soaked tiled floor, he shouted:

Keep your hands up, man. Keep your hands up.

It would be another five minutes before additional units arrived on the scene to finally start offering the man medical help… not before emptying his pockets to make sure Acosta-Bustillos wasn’t carrying any weapons.

He was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Attorney Mark Caruso is now suing the police department as well as Officer Sandoval on behalf of Valente Acosta-Bustillos’ daughter:

My client calls in to ask for a welfare check to make sure everything is OK. She calls APD to check on her father, and it ends up APD is the cause of his death.

Here's the video, but please be aware it includes graphic and distyrbing scenes: