On March 21, 2020, 26-year-old Gage Lorentz was shot and killed by a park ranger in Carlsbad National Park over an alleged speeding violation.
He was driving through New Mexico on his way home to Montrose when he was pulled over. Twenty seconds of body camera footage are missing from the altercation. On Oct. 17, a group marched from the intersection of North and 12th to Lincoln Park to demand justice and accountability for what they consider to be a murder.
“He was the sweetest, kindest, most down to earth person I had ever met. He was very caring, very friendly. He got along with everybody that he met. There was nobody that didn’t like him. He was the kind of person where he walked into the room and lit everybody’s moods up,” Skylar Lorentz, Gage’s sister said.
“It’s been a nightmare ever since it began. The ranger had absolutely no reason to take his life. He asked Gage to step over. Gage obeyed all of the ranger’s requests. The ranger immediately went to automatic force and pulled out his taser and then tased Gage twice, and then pulled his weapon,” Kim Lorentz, mother of Gage and organizer of the march, said.
It’s the 26 seconds of missing bodycam footage, moments before the ranger shot Gage that especially troubles Jenn, Kim Lorentz’s best friend of 35 years who was “there the day [Gage] was born.”
“In the video I watched, there was a taser shot and them struggling and then I watched the gun be put to his chest and the trigger pulled point-blank. I would like to know what happened to the 26 seconds of the missing tape, however, that led up to that moment,” Jenn said.
According to Amber Cozak, Gage’s aunt, there is an internal investigation by the Park Service currently underway, but the officer remains working.
“He’s still working for the National Park Service. He was on administrative leave. He was working in the office for a little while and I’m not sure if he’s back on duty or not,” Cozak said.
Kim hoped the march would “raise awareness and [lead to] change.”
For Jenn, the police’s relationship to authority is part of the trouble.
“I feel like a lot of it is – I don’t want to say the word dominance, but authority. They want to prove their authority. I’m not saying all officers are bad, I don’t agree with that, but I do believe a lot of officers have the mentality when they come in that they are above the law,” Jenn said.
“Without accountability, they know that they can get away with these types of things. I know that they have a hard job. I think that they need support. I’m a registered Republican and I’m ashamed of the way my party is acting towards this. Until it happens to you, you don’t realize how much it needs to change,” Elaine Maestas, whose sister, unarmed, was similarly shot 21 times by officers in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, said.
