The Reporter's Notebook, Ep. 18: Amelia Baca
A still image from the body camera of a Las Cruces police officer seconds after he killed Amelia Baca in her home on April 16, 2022. (Las Cruces Police Department)
In this week’s episode, we’re talking about the shooting of 75-year-old Amelia Baca by an officer from the Las Cruces Police Department. Family members say she suffered from signs of dementia — which was undiagnosed.
When police arrived, they say they found the elderly woman holding a large kitchen knife in each hand. Videos obtained by the Sun-News show that Baca was shot as she took a step toward the responding officer.
Our efforts in reporting this story have been rife with transparency issues, stemming from the City of Las Cruces and the Las Cruces Police Department. Days passed before the department acknowledged the fatal shooting. Eventually, they named the victim. And our subsequent records requests shined a little more light on what happened that Saturday before Easter.
There are a lot of issues to dissect in this — both in our reporting and in the facts of the case. Why did Amelia Baca have to die? Why weren’t less-lethal measures used? Unfortunately, we don’t have the answers to THOSE questions. Someday, we might. The incident is still under investigation by the Doña Ana County Officer-Involved Task Force.
We’ll talk to Justin Garcia, who covers public safety for the Sun-News, about this story — and the challenges of covering it.
This podcast was originally published by the Las Cruces Sun-News.
