- Police Brutality Watch

Preliminary autopsy results on the victim of a police-involved shooting here show Francisco T. Barva was shot once in the head, according to Lea County (N.M.) Sheriff’s Department public information officer Capt. Rod D. Coffman. The preliminary investigation shows two shots were fired by Hobbs police officer Reid Gunter but only one shot struck the victim, Coffman said. He said there was one entry and one exit wound. Coffman said the results were part of an oral report from the Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque, and he did not know when the written report would be finished. The shooting of 23-year-old Barva, of Hobbs, occurred at 5:36 p.m. Jan. 19 Hobbs time after Gunter tried to make a traffic stop in the 300 block of West Gypsy, police said. In addition to the investigation by the sheriff’s department, Hobbs Police Chief Ken Bohn ordered an investigation by the Internal Affairs Unit of the Hobbs PD. The Lea County District Attorney’s Office was also asked to look into the case. Bohn also announced in a news release Jan. 21 that he would request a meeting with the U.S. Department of Justice for a possible review and/or investigation of the case. Coffman said the sheriff’s department wants to talk to other witnesses. Officials also want to ensure that witnesses actually saw what happened and aren’t basing their stories on media reports. [more]

The Hobbs Police Force has a History of Racial Discrimination. As a result of a class action lawsuit against the Dobbs Police Department for racial discrimination and police brutality against Black and Latino residents, the Department has been under court order.[more] On June 19, 2004 in an opinion highly critical of the Hobbs Police Department, a federal judge ordered the department to self-monitor its officers' contacts with racial minorities for another year. [more]
In October Ross Lee Mackey, a Black man, age 26, was arrested and allegedly beaten by Hobbs police officers. The arresting officer, Rodney Porter had various claims against him for police brutality. In fact, before working for the Dobbs police force Porter worked for the Midland (Texas) Police Department. Officer Porter was forced to resign from the Midland police force after an internal investigation uncovered evidence of serious misconduct. [more]