Bernalillo Co. Sheriff responds to 88-year-old man’s death at hands of deputies

Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales on Monday responded to KOB’s story on Fidencio Duran, the 88-year-old South Valley man who died after being shot dozens of times with pepper balls during an incident last September.

Duran’s wife died September 14, 2015. The next day, Duran called his son and told him he was going for walk. Minutes later, a neighbor called law enforcement as Duran banged on her door, yelling and bleeding.

Bernalillo County deputies arrived, and according to their own reports, they called in a crisis negotiator and a Spanish-speaking deputy to translate. Duran was reported to be holding a 4-inch knife, refusing to let it go and asking deputies to kill him.

BCSO’s reports indicate they tried for 90 minutes to get Duran to put the knife down.  But he was partially blind, deaf and distraught over the recent loss of wife.

Deputies devised a plan to get Duran to comply with their orders.  At 10 a.m., they deployed the plan.  They fired pepper balls at Duran and released a muzzled K9 to knock him over.

Medical records show that fall caused Duran’s femur and hip to shatter.  Since Duran’s skin was old and thin, some of the pepper balls penetrated, leaving fragments of plastic inside.  A medical report shows it took doctors days to remove all of the plastic.

One month later, Duran died.  The Office of the Medical Investigator ruled the death a homicide.

Duran’s family’s lawyer filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales and the department on behalf of Duran’s family.

Monday, Sheriff Gonzales sent a news release saying he “would like to express [his] deepest condolences to the family and friends” of Duran.

“The incident involving Mr. Duran, and his unintended death in the weeks that followed is currently being reviewed by the District Attorney’s Office,” Sheriff Gonzales wrote. “In the meantime, I have ordered the Internal Affairs Unit to conduct an investigation into this incident to better understand the totality of the events that transpired.”

This is a complex situation and as such, it will take time to complete a thorough inquiry.  This Department takes the death of any person with whom we come into contact seriously, and Mr. Duran’s death is no exception,” the sheriff’s letter continued. “I am asking the public to be patient with the process as we await the outcome of the District Attorney’s review and the completion of the internal investigation.”

This story was originally published at KOB.com