Police said SWAT team member Perez and former detective Keith Sandy fatally shot James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this file photo taken from a video shot March 16, 2014, James Boyd, 38, left, is shown during a standoff with officers in the Sandia foothills in Albuquerque, N.M., before police fatally shot... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated photo provided by Albuquerque Police Department shows Keith Sandy. The charges filed Monday against officer Dominique Perez and recently retired Detective Keith Sandy appear to be the first against an APD officer for an on-duty fatal shooting in at least 50 years. Police said SWAT team member Dominique Perez and former detective Sandy fatally shot James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE- In this March 30, 2014, file photo, riot police launch tear gas toward activists in downtown Albuquerque, N.M., following a 10-hour protest against the police shooting of James Boyd a homeless camper.... (Associated Press) 
 
 The decision to bring murder charges occurred at a time when police tactics are under intense review nationwide, fueled by the fatal shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, and the chokehold death of another unarmed man in New York City. Brandenburg said Perez and Sandy would not be booked into jail until after a preliminary hearing is held to determine if there is enough evidence for either of them to stand trial on any of three charges – first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. Brandenburg has been criticized for her office's decades-old practice of using grand juries to affirm prosecutors' decisions that no probable cause existed to charge officers in shootings. “We can meet that standard in this case.” 
 
 Sandy’s attorney, Sam Bregman, said that charging the officers was a “terrible, terrible decision.” 
 
 “There is not one shred of evidence to support any … criminal intent on the part of Keith Sandy,” Bregman said. Luis Robles, an attorney for Perez, said he was "confident that the facts will vindicate officer Perez's actions in this case." Brandenburg said the preliminary hearing will allow all of the evidence to come out in public. No hearing has been scheduled. At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, a judge will have to decide whether to bind either man over for trial and on what charge. Brandenburg said the charges against police had nothing to with the agency's investigation into her and that her office got the case long before the bribery claims came to light. No officer has faced criminal charges as a result of those reviews, but one officer involved in a shooting during that time was fired as a result of APD’s investigation. Albuquerque police are implementing a series of reforms negotiated between the U.S. Department of Justice and the city after the DOJ issued a report concluding Albuquerque police had a pattern of using excessive force, which included police shootings. Acknowledging the frustration over the secrecy of the proceedings in those cases, the Albuquerque district attorney said she would bypass the grand jury process and instead present the murder case to a judge at a preliminary hearing that will be open to the public. In halting the “investigative grand juries,” the judges told Brandenburg “that the appearance of a lack of impartiality is impossible to avoid, especially given that the procedure is used only for police officers and specifically limited to officer-involved shootings.” 
 
 Journal stories about the internal workings of the grand juries showed that grand jurors were provided instructions on different versions of justified shootings, but no criminal statutes; prosecutors met with officers to review testimony; and prosecutors asked officers leading questions. APD has sent that case to the state Attorney General’s Office for review.
– Murder charges have been filed in a police shooting that sparked angry demonstrations in Albuquerque, NM, last year. Former Albuquerque police Detective Keith Sandy and SWAT team member Dominique Perez have been charged in the death of 38-year-old James Boyd, a mentally ill homeless man who was fatally shot after an hourslong standoff in the city's foothills last March, reports the Albuquerque Journal. Helmet camera video is expected to play a major role in the case. Video from an officer's camera appears to show Boyd, who was suspected of illegal camping, trying to surrender, but police say he was "unpredictably and dangerously close to a defenseless officer while he was wielding two knives," the AP reports. The district attorney says she decided to file charges via a process called criminal information instead of going to a grand jury because she wanted "total transparency" in the case, reports the New York Times. "Unlike Ferguson and New York City, people will see the evidence and hear the witnesses," she says. The murder charges are open, giving prosecutors the option of pursuing manslaughter or first- or second-degree murder charges if a judge decides there's enough evidence. The president of New Mexico's Fraternal Order of Police says the charges are part of a national trend to distrust police and "it is time to stop second-guessing police officers," although a federal probe that began before the Boyd shooting found that Albuquerque police had a pattern of using "excessive and deadly force."