EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — New Mexico State University Professor Jagdish Khubchandani co-authored a study showing a spike in Hispanics being killed by law enforcement in the past decade.
“African Americans indeed are the most likely to be killed by police officers, but Hispanics are a close second,” said Khubchandani, who is the co-author of the study and a professor of public health at NMSU.
The study titled “Lethal Force Usage by Law Enforcement Officers Against Hispanics, 2011-2020” was published in the Journal of Community Health and was co-authored by James H. Price of the University of Toledo.
The study showing that the Hispanic population in the United States has grown by 18 to 20 percent but the number of Hispanics killed by law enforcement has increased by 40 percent.
According to the study, California and Texas had the highest number of Hispanics killed by law enforcement but when looking at population size, New Mexico actually moves to the No. 1 spot.
“The population density of Hispanics for every 100,000 Hispanics, one of them will be killed by police officers. So you could go to Ohio, Indiana, where there are fewer Hispanics. But still, the rate of death remains highest in New Mexico based on 100,000 population,” Khubchandani said.
Khubchandani brought up the death of 75-year-old Amelia Baca of Las Cruces back in 2022. As we reported, according to the video released by Las Cruces Police Department, the officer involved fired two shots at Baca, shooting her in the chest while she was holding a knife.
“The 1,100 or 2,000 deaths in the past 10 years of Hispanics by police officers, some of them were preventable,” Khubchandani said.
The City of Las Cruces settled a close to $3 million wrongful death lawsuit with the family of Baca.
By looking at officer-involved deaths in El Paso, from 2020 to current, there have been 15 deadly encounters with El Paso County law enforcement officers. Of those, 10 were Hispanic, one was Black and four were white.
“States, the border area, the Mountain West and California, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona. These are places where a high number of deaths are occurring,” Khubchandani said.