Police body camera videos show a brief, hectic scene just before Santa Fe officers fatally shot a transgender man reported to be in a mental health crisis.
Police gunfire killed 33-year-old Gracen Coon on Sept. 22 in what was the fifth shooting by Santa Fe police this year. Two others were also deadly.
Coonās wife, Lilli Gordon, had called 911, reporting her husband was in a mental health crisis and armed with a box cutter.
Police referred to Coon in reports by the legal name Stephanie Coon, noting the deceased āidentified as maleā but had not gone through the legal process to change his name and gender. A close acquaintance of Coonās has said they preferred gender-neutral pronouns, but a lawyer for Coonās estate is using masculine pronouns.
State police are investigating the shooting, but more than two months later, the agency has provided no information on its progress, leaving body camera videos, which The Santa Fe New Mexican obtained Monday through a public records request, to tell the story for now.
One of the videos shows the shooting unfolded within less than a minute of the officersā arrival at dawn at Coonās home on La Placita Circle.
A time stamp shows 6:25 a.m. as two Santa Fe police officers ā David Gallegos and Charles Ovalle ā run up to the front door of Coonās home and open the door yelling, āSanta Fe police ā step out of the house now.ā
With guns drawn, the officers order Coon ā who can be seen just inside the door ā to come outside, and Coon emerges from the front door holding up both hands, in each of which can be seen an object.
āIāve got nothing,ā Coon says. āYou have a box cutter ā drop it,ā one of the officers replies.
Officers back up into the yard, and one of them tells Coon to ādrop the weaponā as Coon steps from the front porch to the sidewalk. Red and green dots indicated laser targeting can be seen aimed at Coonās torso and legs.
āIāve got nothing,ā Coon says, then āI donāt want to live.ā
āWeāre going to help you out,ā an officer says, and Coon responds, āI believe you,ā while taking a step forward.
Then three shots ring out ā apparently fired by Gallegos ā and Coon falls backward.
Paramedics arrive a little over two minutes later and take Coon into an ambulance.
The fatal incident could lead to litigation against the city and county over the handling of the call. Attorney Brian Egolf ā who is representing Coonās estate ā submitted tort claim notices in late September to both the city of Santa Fe and to the county dispatch center.
Egolf, who used masculine pronouns and the honorific āMr.ā for Coon, wrote Coonās wife ācalled the Santa Fe County Regional Emergency Communications Center for a welfare check on behalf of Mr. Coon, insisting on the call to the dispatcher that he was not dangerous.ā
āUpon the SFPDās arrival there were no de-escalation tactics employed towards Mr. Coon before an SFPD officer fired his service weapon at Mr. Coon, killing him,ā the notice alleges. āMs. Gordon was ordered to stay inside her house and watched Mr. Coon, her husband, die before her.ā
Egolf said he also received police body camera footage from the incident Monday, but he declined to comment further on the case.
Statements from Santa Fe police following the incident said Coon āwas reported to be violent and armed with a box cutterā and Coon āwas making threats to kill the victim in the residence.ā The call had been coded by dispatchers as āpsychiatric/abnormal behavior.ā
After police shot Coon, the video shows officers searching his body for gunshot wounds. Coonās wife can be seen opening the front door and asking officers āWhat just happened?ā An officer tells her to go back inside and wait there.
Some time later, Coonās wife can be seen crying during an interview with another officer outside their garage.
When questioned by a commanding officer after the shooting, Gallegos said Coon was armed with āa box cutter and a gun.ā Ovalle tells a commanding officer Coon āhad a knife in his hand, and I found out after that he also had a gun.ā
The New Mexican on Oct. 22 requested information about the state police investigation but has received no formal reply.
State police spokesperson Officer Wilson Silver declined to respond to questions about the investigation Tuesday, but wrote in an email the agency plans to forward the case to the District Attorneyās Office next week.
āOnce you receive the report, any further questions you have should be answered,ā he wrote.
Santa Fe police Deputy Chief Ben Valdez referred questions about the incident to state police, writing an internal investigation would begin after the state agencyās probe āto determine compliance with department policies and procedures.ā
