Another Nightmare Video and the Police on the Defensive in Tucson

Last year, Vicente Villela, 37, told the officers holding him down at a jail in Albuquerque that he could not breathe. He lay on his stomach as the guards struggled to remove his shackles and pressed their knees onto his back and legs. Mr. Villela died, and the autopsy report found that he had died of “mechanical asphyxia,” with physical restraint and the effects of methamphetamine as contributing factors. His death was ruled a homicide.

Three officers involved in Mr. Lopez’s death resigned before the public release of the video, and Chris Magnus, Tucson’s police chief, offered to resign.

But Ms. Romero said on Thursday that Chief Magnus should remain in the job, emphasizing that authorities should not be distracted from examining why Mr. Lopez’s life was “needlessly lost.” Many Latino residents were already expressing dismay over the gap between the Tucson department’s professed goals and the reality of how Latinos in the city were often treated by the police.

At least by its own description before Mr. Lopez’s death, the Tucson Police Department figured among the most forward-thinking in the country. The department had banned chokeholds and shooting at moving vehicles, embracing a range of measures aimed at reducing police violence. Chief Magnus is known as a maverick for pushing progressive changes.

Still, Latino leaders in Tucson say that Mr. Lopez’s death, and the way the episode was kept secret for months, is just the newest reminder of how many people in their communities live in fear of the city’s police.

Ms. Jaramillo, the Tucson lawyer, said she had been having trouble sleeping since viewing the video in which Mr. Lopez died while calling out for his nana, or grandmother.

Ms. Jaramillo, who now assists victims of domestic violence, said she was struck especially by how Mr. Lopez’s grandmother, Magdalena Ingram, was treated dismissively by officers in her own home when she asked about her grandson while the officers were restraining him. She had called 911 because he was having a mental health crisis and acting erratically.