New Mexico has the second-highest fatal police shooting rate in US – is it ready to change?

Since 2015, police in the Albuquerque metro area have shot 44 people, 42 of whom have died. For residents dealing with the trauma, hope is still far away

Veronica Ajanel had not heard from her father for several days. Under normal circumstances she would have gone to visit him to check in, but this was late March 2020, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, had just implemented a shelter-in-place order for all of New Mexico.

Ajanel was worried about her fathers health, so she called the Albuquerque police department (APD) to perform a welfare check on the 52-year-old Valente Acosta-Bustillos. APD had performed these check ins on Valente before. His family was routinely calling in for support as the Mexican native had been experiencing manic episodes.