Former Las Cruces Police Officer Brad Lunsford became the center of a rare criminal prosecution after he shot and killed 36-year-old Presley Eze during an August 2, 2022 encounter at a Chevron gas station in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The incident began with a call over an alleged minor shoplifting offense. According to the New Mexico Department of Justice, a gas station attendant called 911 after reportedly seeing Eze leave the station with a beer he had not paid for. Lunsford was the first officer to arrive and began questioning Eze inside the gas station.
The encounter escalated after officers were unable to verify Eze’s identity. The New Mexico Department of Justice said Lunsford and another officer forcibly removed Eze from a vehicle to detain him. Eze was unarmed and shirtless, but resisted the officers’ attempt to take him into custody. During the struggle, Eze and another officer ended up on the ground, with Eze on top of the officer.
Prosecutors said Eze placed his hand on the second officer’s Taser, though the Taser was not cycled or deployed. In response, Lunsford drew his service weapon and shot Eze on the back left side of the head at point-blank range.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez later described the killing as “yet another example of poor police tactics resulting in an unjustifiable use of force to subdue an individual resisting arrest for the commission of a minor crime,” according to the charging announcement.
Lunsford was charged with voluntary manslaughter with a firearm enhancement in October 2023. A grand jury later indicted him on the same charge. In its indictment announcement, the New Mexico Department of Justice said Eze gained possession of the other officer’s Taser during the struggle, but that it was never deployed before Lunsford fired.
On February 12, 2025, a jury found Lunsford guilty of voluntary manslaughter with a firearm enhancement. The New Mexico Department of Justice announced that Lunsford was remanded into custody after the verdict and faced up to nine years in prison.
“Today’s verdict reaffirms a fundamental principle: no one is above the law—not even those sworn to uphold it,” Attorney General Torrez said after the verdict. “Officer Lunsford’s actions were not just a tragic lapse in judgment; they were an egregious abuse of power that cost Presley Eze his life.”
The Associated Press reported that evidence at trial included police body camera video showing officers pulling Eze from a vehicle before the fatal struggle. Lunsford, who is white, had pleaded not guilty. His attorney said after the verdict that he did not believe the state had met its burden.
The case did not end with the jury’s verdict. In October 2025, KFOX14 reported that a judge granted Lunsford a new trial after motions raised issues involving an improper juror switch and alleged juror bias. According to the report, no new trial date had been set at the time.
The Eze family also pursued civil litigation. KFOX14/CBS4 reported that Eze’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Las Cruces and Lunsford, and that a federal judge ruled Lunsford knowingly deleted text messages considered important to the case.
Presley Eze was accused of stealing a beer. He was unarmed. He was shot in the head at point-blank range by a police officer who was supposed to handle the situation without turning a minor shoplifting call into a death sentence.
The criminal case remains active because of the new-trial ruling, but the basic facts remain stark: Presley Eze was killed during a police response to an alleged petty theft, and a New Mexico jury found Brad Lunsford guilty before the case was reopened for further proceedings.
