The Doña Ana County sheriff declined to take questions during a news conference on May 1 after a deputy killed a man in Chaparral during an arrest.
Sheriff Kim Stewart said she wouldn’t answer questions because of how one news article portrayed the situation in which a deputy sought to arrest Jose Adrian Guzman before shooting him to death.
“This was a tragic event that some in the media decided to take my 100-word press release on this matter and alter it to fit another narrative,” Stewart said. “A hostile and judgmental narrative.”
Stewart's decision broke from years of established expectations following DASO shootings, a model that Las Cruces police adopted following transparency concerns about the fatal shooting of Amelia Baca in 2022.
“I recognize from a lifetime of dealing with media there are inherent risks in talking to the media and taking that consistent position. I still believe that position is the correct one,” Stewart said. “My apologies, deputy, to you and your family for this blatant misrepresentation of your actions. I hope today we have clarified it.”
While Stewart did not answer questions from a half dozen reporters, she did show about 15 minutes of body camera video. According to Stewart, the incident began when the deputy responded to a suspicious person and possible burglary call around 2:20 p.m. near Oasis Drive on April 29.
The video – which Stewart stopped short of the moment the deputy killed Guzman – showed a chaotic encounter that began with the deputy stopping Guzman on the neighborhood roadside. The deputy seemed to know Guzman from past encounters.
“I’ve told you in the past,” the deputy, who was not identified, told Guzman. “We’ve been cool. Just remind me of what your name is.”
The deputy asks Guzman a few questions, tells him he could leave, then runs Guzman through a database. Stewart said the deputy then discovered that Guzman had a warrant.
The video then cuts away. It’s unclear if DASO made that edit or if the deputy turned his body camera off and on again. But later, the video shows the deputy confronting Guzman as a fight breaks out. The two men struggle as the deputy tries to pin Guzman against the asphalt, but Guzman scrambles away. As he runs, the deputy fires taser rounds. None seem to hit.
The deputy returns to his unit. Out of breath, the deputy drives up and down Oasis, following Guzman until he leaves his unit, taser drawn. An electric hum grows as the taser charges and the deputy fires. The electric round strikes Guzman, causing his body to lock up, and brings him to the asphalt with a crash.
“I’m not fucking around,” the deputy tells Guzman as he attempts to grapple him again.
The two men then struggle on the ground until the deputy gains control and then appears to lose it, allowing Guzman to scramble to his feet. The pin lasts for five minutes before Guzman gets free.
“That’s a long time to hold someone and try to contain them,” Stewart said, adding that the deputy called for aid but that DASO’s radios did not pick it up.
It is unclear from the video, but at some point during the fight, possibly from when Guzman collapses when struck by the taser round, Guzman’s head becomes bloodied.
As Guzman gets free, he picks up the taser gun and points it at the deputy. According to Stewart, the stun gun was still charged and capable of firing.
The deputy then draws his firearm.
“Drop it,” he tells Guzman multiple times. “Drop it now.”
“No,” Guzman replies, pointing the taser at the deputy and lowering it.
Stewart then ends the video.
“When he pointed it (the taser) at the deputy, it’s considered potential lethal force,” Stewart said.
Stewart said that Guzman, 35, had a lengthy criminal record and was known to DASO deputies. She brought a six-inch stack of papers, saying they were his criminal records, but she did not provide the prop for inspection to any media members.
She displayed a list of charges, most of which were over five years old. The most serious was aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2019. The list also did not say if any charges resulted in convictions.
The Bulletin requested an interview with Stewart after the news conference. The Bulletin had questions about DASO’s radios—which Stewart has said before work only intermittently in parts of the county—the deputies' decision to allow Guzman to leave before running his name through a warrant database, and edits made to the video.
Stewart denied the request but specified in a text message that she felt a KVIA article misrepresented the situation.
That article, published online before the news conference, states: “Dona Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart said deputies opened fire on the man. She said the man was unarmed, and she does not know if deputies shot the man purposefully or accidentally.”
Like all fatal police shootings, the incident is being investigated for potential criminal charges by a task force composed of local detectives. Those findings are presented to the district attorney’s office, who decides whether to press charges. DASO will also investigate the incident for potential policy violations.
