Police Body Cam Officer Involved Shooting Albuquerque Woman

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico ---- Albuquerque police had just started talking to a suicidal women when the woman got out of her car and pointed what appeared to be a gun at police, according to on-body camera footage of the shooting that police released on Monday.

Officers opened fire with a rifle and a gun that shoots foam bullets. A rifle bullet hit Danielle Sudlow, 21, in the knee and she was injured. Officer Morgan Franklin, who has been with the department for 12 years, shot Sudlow in the knee, said Celina Espinoza, a police spokeswoman.

Albuquerque police officials had previously described the Aug. 8 shooting and said Sudlow had pointed a gun at police prior to getting shot. Espinoza said in an email that a 9 mm Taurus was found at the scene.

According to a criminal complaint, Sudlow on Aug. 5 had tried a similar tactic in an attempt to get police to shoot her. She had held a wallet the way someone would hold a gun and pointed the wallet at police, who didn’t shoot her. Sudlow was then treated at University of New Mexico Hospital until she was released from the hospital about three hours prior to being shot by an Albuquerque police officer.

“She was released … despite an Albuquerque police detective informing the staff she was still suicidal,” the complaint said.

Video of the shooting made by officers on scene shows numerous police officers surrounding Sudlow’s car, which was parked near Rainbow and Irving NW in Albuquerque.

Just as an officer with crisis intervention training started to talk to her over a loudspeaker, Sudlow got out of the car and pointed what appears to be a gun in the video at officers. Two shots are then heard and Sudlow falls to the ground, according to the video.

“I’m sorry, I just really wanted to die. I wanted you to kill me,” Sudlow tells officers as they are taking her into custody.

Police said is was a gun that Sudlow pointed at officers before she was shot.

An officer in the videos collects a note that was found in at the scene. When asked to describe the note, the officer said “43-1,” which is the code that police use to describe a suicide.

“Basically she’s sorry, please forgive,” the officer said, describing the note.

An arrest warrant for five counts of aggravated battery against a police officer with a deadly weapon has been issued for Sudlow’s arrest.