Albuquerque police seen fatally shooting man as she reached for his BB gun in horrifying bodycam video
Police bodycam footage has emerged showing how an Albuquerque man was shot to death by authorities after he tried to reach for his BB gun. BB guns are airguns that can shoot metallic ball projectiles which are called BBs.
Authorities responded to a busy bus stop in August after multiple 911 calls reported 57-year-old Roger Schafer was waving a gun around. He died in gunfire after refusing to comply with the officers' commands, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
Now, newly released bodycam footage shows Schafer hurling abuses at responding officers after they repeatedly order him to put his hands up and away from his waistband.
Authorities were left with no option but to open fire after Schafer pushed himself from the ground onto a bench and reached toward the front of his pants. He was killed instantly.
Reports show Schafer was pointing a gun at people and traffic near Eubank Boulevard and Cooper Avenue. "There is a man on the corner of Copper and Eubank in front of the Payless Shoe Store sitting at the bus stop seat bench", one caller told a 911 dispatcher. "I am driving to work, he's waving a gun around."
Officers only found after the shooting that Schafer's 9mm handgun was actually a BB gun. "It was a heavily populated area. We have a Walmart in the area with people going in and out of that Walmart, that parking lot was full of vehicles", an officer with the Albuquerque Police Department told a press conference.
Schafer has had several run-ins with the law in the past. He was arrested in May 2019 after reportedly assaulting a police officer while wielding a hatchet. "Right as he was leaving, he walked by, like, waved the ax at us", one witness said at the time.
Also, he was arrested for drinking in public in 2016, and in 2018 he was arrested for shooting at an establishment with his BB gun.