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The Police Oversight Commission on Tuesday upheld a finding that APD officer Randal White improperly used force when he fired at a vehicle whose driver had escaped a SWAT lockdown in December 2012.

White fired twice at suspect Christopher Sosa, 20, who had fled an hourslong SWAT situation in northeast Albuquerque in a green Toyota Corolla. Though Sosa was not injured, one of the bullets embedded itself in the Corolla and the other struck the wall of a nearby elementary school.

The POC, down to three members after three commissioners resigned last month, voted two to one to uphold Independent Review Officer Robin Hammer’s findings, which included that he used force improperly by shooting at the fleeing vehicle but was not acting outside of standard operating procedure by failing to turn on his lapel camera.

Hammer also did not find that White violated the department’s truthfulness policy. White told investigators that he fired at the front of the vehicle but changed his story between questioning by the Internal Affairs unit and a multijurisdictional shooting investigation team.

POC Chairman Jeffrey Peterson questioned why the discrepancy did not result in a finding of violating the truthfulness SOP, and he ultimately voted against the motion to uphold Hammer’s finding. Peterson did not say whether he voted “no” because he felt the officer’s use of force was justified or if he thought White violated the honesty policy.

Hammer and police Sgt. Liz Thomson said it’s possible White was influenced by “looming”, a psychological phenomenon that results in exaggerations and sequence gaps by those, like officers, who are involved in “traumatic” events.

“That is common with traumatic memory,” Thomson told the POC. “It is often in a confused sequence. There may be gaps in the memory that the brain will fill in based on the context, and things like that.”

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The POC’s upholding of Hammer’s ruling is the first time in at least the last four years that the civilian body has found that an officer’s use of deadly force was improper. It came closest three years ago when the POC reviewed the shooting death of Kenneth Ellis III.

In that case, then-IRO William Deaton ruled that officers improperly used deadly force in Ellis’ death, but the POC overruled him. The case would go on to cost taxpayers millions of dollars in a civil suit.

Hammer’s findings in the White shooting will now be forwarded on to APD Chief Gorden Eden, who ultimately has the final say in officer discipline.