BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Former Los Alamos Police Officer and Chaves County sheriff’s deputy David Bradshaw was sentenced Friday in Fifth Judicial District Court in Chaves County on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse in a case related to an off-duty incident in Roswell in March 2018 where he followed a vehicle several miles home in his personal pickup and pulled a gun on the driver. The child abuse charge was added because Bradshaw’s young son was in the truck with him at the time of the incident.

A jury found Bradshaw guilty following a two-day trial of both charges. District Judge Raymond L. Romero had the discretion to judge the child abuse charge as a serious violent offense. In his findings, he noted that the pursuit of the aggravated assault was motivated by anger over being cut off by the victim in traffic. It was also noted that Bradshaw followed the victim for a substantial distance and that when he made contact with the victim he saw that the victim was armed.  Judge Romero said Bradshaw knew the child was directly between Bradshaw and the victim when he pointed his firearm at him and that he acted intentionally.

“He knew his actions could result in serious harm to his child and completely disregarded that risk,” Judge Romero said. Bradshaw was sent to the Department of Correction for a 60-day evaluation prior to sentencing which was originally set for July.

On the aggravated assault charge, Bradshaw was sentenced to three years in prison enhanced by an additional year because of the firearm involved. Three years of the sentence was suspended, leaving Bradshaw one year to serve, followed by two years on parole and three years on probation.

On the child abuse charge, Bradshaw was handed an 18 months sentence enhanced by one year for the firearm with 18 months suspended and one year to serve consecutive to the one year sentence on the aggravated assault count. He was placed on 18 months of probation for a total of 4 ½ years.