Joshua Clay Dunne

Deadly force

Officers were trying to make contact with a man who was believed to be thinking about committing suicide and who had barricaded himself in a third-floor room at a hotel. Officers attempted to negotiate with the man for several hours, police said. Eventually, the Las Cruces Police Department's SWAT and Hostage Negotiation teams made contact, but the subject remained uncooperative. Shortly after 10:30 p.m., Sgt. Cody Austin and Officer David Rodriguez shot and killed him. Dunne was a graduate student studying social work at New Mexico State University, was a veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.