SFPD Officer Under Investigation for Two SWAT Shootings Within a Year

The officer who shot twice at and missed an armed, barricaded man during a standoff in January has used force while on duty at least five other times since 2015, according to records obtained by SFR.

Officer Luke Wakefield remains under investigation for a separate shooting by a panel of three outside prosecutors convened by District Attorney Marco Serna. The panel is examining whether Wakefield and fellow SFPD Officer Jeremy Bisanga violated a justified shooting statute when they fired a combined 17 rounds at a man with schizophrenia during a SWAT operation last July. The man, Anthony Benavidez, died. Serna did not return calls regarding the status of the investigation by publication time.

Now Wakefield, who joined the force in 2014, is also under investigation by New Mexico State Police for firing rounds during the Jan. 27 incident. After that investigation is completed, SFPD will initiate an internal administrative review of Wakefield's actions.

While Wakefield is under review for firing his weapon during two separate SWAT deployments, it does not appear that his past use-of-force incidents were ever deemed inappropriate by his supervising officers.

Wakefield was part of a SWAT team that responded to a woman's emergency call about her abusive boyfriend, Alex Maestas, according to police reports. After the woman escaped the home, a standoff ensued and stretched on for several hours. Police attempted to contact Maestas with a phone they threw into the house through a window.

Maestas was armed with a handgun, according to the police and his mother on the scene, and officers believed that popping noises coming from inside his residence were the sounds of Maestas firing the weapon.

"He's popping rounds," Wakefield is heard saying on video captured by his body camera.

After hours of attempted negotiation, Wakefield takes aim at the home as others close in from multiple sides. Wakefield's video shows that he fires suddenly while several officers next to him have their rifles pointed downward.

"Shots fired, shots fired," Wakefield says, alleging that Maestas pointed a weapon at him. "I don't know if he shot at me. I think I'm good."

Maestas was later arrested and charged with aggravated battery, false imprisonment, discharging a weapon and other offenses.

Santa Fe Police spokesman Greg Gurule says SFPD's impending internal administrative investigation into Wakefield's actions is standard procedure. The internal review will come after State Police finishes its investigation and after Maestas' case has worked its way through the courts.

"It's protocol for our Professional Standards Division {Internal Affairs} to review all cases in which an officer has fired his/her weapon, that of course includes the SWAT incident of January 27, 2018," Gurule wrote in an email to SFR.

Because of the way the city of Santa Fe interprets the state's records law, the results of any internal personnel investigation are not disclosed to the media or public. But Gurule says that SFPD documents every use-of-force incident and reviews all force reports quarterly.

The first record of Wakefield using force is from Sept. 9, 2015. He and another officer stopped a woman on suspicion of drunken driving. The records say that after the woman, who was under five feet tall, refused to exit the car, Wakefield pulled her out "by her left arm and dragged her out of the car." The report describes Wakefield's use of force as justified.

In another incident, from Aug. 17, 2017, Wakefield and another officer chased a man who was later charged with several crimes, including breaking and entering and disorderly conduct. After the other officer tackled the suspect to the ground, Wakefield unholstered his sidearm and pressed the muzzle against the suspect's back, because Wakefield believed the man was reaching for something. No weapons were recovered from the suspect.

Wakefield also used a stun gun to subdue a man on June 16, 2016. In that incident, SFPD records show that Wakefield kicked down the door to a home after responding to a domestic violence call. Wakefield fired his stun gun twice at a man who had allegedly charged at him.

The Santa Fe SWAT team deployed a combined 28 times in 2016 and 2017, according to incident reports obtained by SFR. The majority of the incidents (17) were related to suspected drug crimes, with most resulting in trafficking charges for suspects.

The SWAT team responded three times over the last two years to situations of mental distress or domestic violence and battery, including the fatal Benavidez encounter last July.

While none of the agencies investigating Wakefield's shots on Jan. 27 have indicated whether Maestas suffered from mental illness, Maestas' mother, Christina Dominguez, seemed to imply as much.

Dominguez can be seen on video taken from an officer's body camera saying that psychiatrists who have treated Maestas over the years "think he could have been bipolar. … They can't really figure out what's wrong with him, he hasn't been properly evaluated."

Dominguez also states in the video that Maestas has experienced depression and suicidal thoughts, and that his state of mind was immature for his 26 years.