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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Woman Shot While|Driving at Officers Sues

ALBUQUERQUE (CN) - An Albuquerque woman is suing two New Mexico State Police officers who shot her in the arm and back in 2014, but the story told in her complaint is very different from what police had to say about that morning.

According to the lawsuit filed by Roxanne Torres in Federal Court on Friday, she was sleeping in a parked Toyota FJ cruiser when New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau officers Janice Madrid and Richard Williamson arrived to serve a warrant on a woman named Kayenta Jackson.

Torres says that when the officers, clad in dark clothes and tactical vests, tried to open the car door, she thought they were criminals trying to carjack her and was shot while trying to exit the parking lot.

But according to Albuquerque Journal coverage of the incident, the officers reported that when they shot at the vehicle Torres was driving directly toward them at a "high rate of speed and fast acceleration." The Journal also reported that Madrid told detectives in an interview that she expected to be run over.

"I began to fire at the driver to stop that vehicle. I didn't believe that I was going home. I was waiting for the impact," Madrid told detectives.

The same news report says that Torres fled the scene in the truck but later crashed into another car, then stole a car from a nearby parking lot and fled again.

Torres was later arrested at Cibola General Hospital in Grants, New Mexico, 80 miles from Albuquerque, having given hospital staff a false name and driver's license.

In March 2015, Torres pleaded no contest to aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer, assault on a peace officer, and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.

This past August, the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office said no charges would be filed against officers Madrid and Williamson. Torres's civil suit, however, accuses them of excessive force and conspiracy to use excessive force.

She is seeking monetary damages for loss of earning, pain and suffering and emotional distress as well as court costs.

Torres is represented by Eric D. Dixon of Portales, New Mexico.

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