VC Sheriff's Office releases video of deputy involved shooting before state police investigation complete

Shortly after 4 p.m., Friday, Oct. 11, the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office released more than 100 videos from body worn cameras, totaling 61 collective hours, from the fatal shooting of a Valencia County man by a deputy last month.

Included in the materials released was a 10 minute video presentation created by VCSO which contained a timeline of the day, starting shortly after 3 p.m. and going through the time of the shooting death of Michael Gabaldon, 51.

The video files, criminal complaint and other public documents released by VCSO yesterday are only what the department has direct control over, Lt. Joe Rowland, a public information officer for the sheriff’s office, told the News-Bulletin. Rowland said the department doesn’t have access to the information being gathered by New Mexico State Police as it investigates the shooting, including interviews with witnesses or the deputy who shot Gabaldon and what was found at the scene.

“This is the information we have, but there are some holes,” Rowland said Friday evening.

Valencia County Sheriff Denise Vigil said transparency is expected of law enforcement, so the decision was made to release all of the body camera footage in its entirety.

“(Public records) laws have changed. We can’t withhold records due to an investigation and this is not our investigation,” Vigil said. “We are trying not to interfere with that but we had no reason to withhold any part of this.”

In the information provided by VCSO, three deputies are named as the initial deputies responding to the third call for service, which was when the shooting occurred. While the sheriff’s office has released the names of the officers, including that of the deputy directly involved, the News-Bulletin will not release that information until NMSP has completed its investigation, including interviews of the three officers.

Vigil said any time there have been shootings by law enforcement in New Mexico, “one of the first things people want to know is the name of the officers directly involved. We can’t get around that. We decided to be as transparent as necessary and put everything out there. It troubles me that we've been put in that position but the public wants to know every bit of everything, even before an investigation is complete.

Vigil said she and the members of the sheriff’s office were truly saddened by the situation, saying it impacts the entire community.

“Our hearts go out to the families involved. Events like this are hard on everyone — the families and the deputies,” she sheriff said. “It’s never easy on either side and we know we’re going to be scrutinized.”

The first call

At 3:12 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 29, deputies were dispatched to 116 La Ladera, south of the town of Peralta, after Michael and Rebecca Gabaldon reported Thomas Rodriguez, 46, their neighbor, was shooting a gun from his backyard.

Body camera footage shows the Gabaldons speaking with a deputy about Rodriguez, with Michael saying he did see Rodriguez with a gun. Gabaldon said Rodriguez couldn’t see him and he heard the man say he was going to “open fire,” but Rodriguez didn’t seem to be speaking to anyone.

According to the criminal complaint filed against Rodriguez, his mother, Carol Cyrus, told officers Rodriguez used marijuana and “another drug” she didn’t know the name of, but based on her description of the effects was most likely methamphetamine the complaint reads.

Cyrus said her son would stay up for days and eventually begin to hallucinate, convinced his daughters — who he doesn’t have custody of or contact with, the complaint notes — are being hurt.

When his mother tells him the girls are safe, he “begins to yell at the voices and goes outside and starts shooting at the hallucinations.” Cyrus told officers the hallucinations worsen the longer he stays up, and by Sept. 29, he had been awake for five or six days.

Deputies made contact with Rodriguez and Cyrus, who live on the property directly east of the Gabaldon home, and saw Rodriguez holding what looked like a rifle.

He immediately went into the house and refused to come out. Cyrus did agree to file an Extreme Risk Firearms Protection Order — also known as New Mexico’s Red Flag law — for removal of firearms from the property.

The act, which became law in May 2020, creates a court process to temporarily prevent a person in crisis from accessing firearms and harming themselves or others.

After about an hour and a half of call outs to Rodriguez, deputies left the scene shortly before 5 p.m. They explained to the Gabaldons they will file charges against Rodriguez for firing the gun and file the petition for the protection order to have his guns removed from the home.

The situation escalates

Deputies were called out to the home on La Ladera a second time that Sunday at 7:46 p.m., after dispatch received numerous calls about a confrontation between Gabaldon and Rodriguez in the road in front of their houses. Cyrus also calls 911, reporting her son is arguing with the neighbor and the neighbor wants to shoot her son.

While she is on the phone with the dispatcher, deputies arrive at the scene. On body camera footage, a deputy can be heard advising dispatch “gun, gun, gun” as he comes to a stop on the road.

According to the presentation, Gabaldon was in a “shooter's stance” pointing a handgun towards the home of Rodriguez and his mother. Deputies give numerous commands to Gabaldon to drop the gun, while deputies hold him at gunpoint, but he does not comply.

According to the criminal complaint, Gabaldon repeatedly stated he was not going to drop the gun and told deputies they weren’t doing their job.

“He postured himself in a fighting stance and challenged deputies, asking if we wanted to fight,” reads the criminal complaint. “He continued to walk to deputies in an aggressive manner still egging the deputies on.”

Gabaldon eventually puts the handgun in his waistband at the small of his back and climbs over a locked gate back into his yard.

Deputies then began trying to call Rodriguez out of his home a second time. They were able to speak with Gabaldon, who explained why he was on the road and armed when they arrived. Gabaldon alleged Rodriguez was driving up and down the street, making derogatory hand gestures at him, and threw a rock at his house, hitting it.

That’s when Gabaldon armed himself with a handgun and went outside into his yard, staying inside the fence, to confront Rodriguez. He told deputies Rodriguez drove at him in a threatening manner, so he — Gabaldon — fired a shot in the air. Concerned Rodriguez was armed as well, Gabaldon jumped his fence to get into the road and keep his home from being in the potential line of fire from Rodriguez.

Gabaldon told deputies he didn’t see Rodriguez with a gun during that incident and asked if they were going to let Rodriguez go again.

According to the presentation, he told deputies, “Things were going to get worse.... Mr. Gabaldon states, ‘When he came at the fence, I should have popped him...’”

Deputies made call outs at Rodriguez’s home from 8:10 to 10:11 p.m. without him coming out.

“The sheriff’s office, not wanting to force an armed encounter with Mr. Rodriguez for alleged misdemeanor crimes, left the scene and moved forward with the filing of the misdemeanor charges and the Extreme Risk Firearms Protection Order,” is a statement included in the presentation.

In a phone interview after the release of information on Friday, Rowland said for misdemeanor crimes, law enforcement cannot obtain a search warrant to force entry into a home and arrest a person.

The final call

Ten minutes after deputies leave, at 10:21 p.m., dispatch receives a call that shots are being fired at the location. At 10:25 p.m., Rebecca Gabaldon tells a dispatcher her husband went outside, armed, to protect their home.

Body camera footage shows a deputy arriving at the home on La Ladera, and before exiting the unit he advises the dispatcher, “neighbor has a gun.” As he gets out of the car, there is the sound of a single gunshot.

He points his patrol rifle toward the northeast corner of the property at 116 La Ladera, according to the presentation, and yells, “Hey! Drop it! Drop it! ... I am going to shoot! Drop it! Drop it!” After seven seconds of yelling commands, he fires his rifle once.

He continues to give commands to drop the gun and requests an ambulance via radio. Footage shows him getting a medical kit from his vehicle and asking another deputy to help provide medical assistance. Deputies climb a locked gate to get to Gabaldon in his yard. In the video, Gabaldon is seen laying facedown on the ground, a large wound on the back of his right shoulder. A deputy in the video says he cannot find an exit wound.

Deputies begin CPR shortly after requesting the Lifeguard helicopter be dispatched. Medical units arrive and Gabaldon is transported by ambulance to the Albertson’s to meet the helicopter, but by the time it arrives at 11:04 p.m., Gabaldon is dead.