A police officer has been charged in the killing of a Black man at a gas station after he left without paying for a beer

More than a year after a Black man died at the hands of police outside a New Mexico gas station, the state's attorney general announced charges against one of the police officers at the scene, calling his actions an "unjustifiable use of force" and "yet another example of poor police tactics."

Las Cruces Officer Brad Lunsford turned himself in to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office October 3, his attorney, Luis Robles told CNN. He was charged with voluntary manslaughter with an additional count of firearm enhancement and released on his own recognizance, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said during a news conference the same day.

On August 2 last year, Lunsford, who is White, allegedly shot Presley Eze, a Black man, outside a Chevron gas station after an employee called 911 to report Eze left the store "with a beer he did not pay for," the attorney general's office said.

Lunsford, the first officer to arrive at the scene, questioned Eze, and after he was unable to verify his identity, "Lunsford and another officer forcibly removed Eze from the vehicle in order to detain him" and "a scuffle ensued" where Eze wound up on the ground, "on top of one of the responding officers," according to the attorney general's office.

A second officer who was present during the shooting has not been charged with a crime, arrest warrant documents show.

"During the ongoing struggle Eze placed his hand on the second officer's taser though it was not cycled or deployed against either officer," Torrez's office said, and "in response Officer Lunsford drew his service weapon and shot Eze on the back, left side of his head at point-blank range."

Officers had removed a closed pocketknife from Eze's possession before the incident turned physical, according to arrest warrant documents. Eze was unarmed when he was shot.