DURHAM – Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez took to social media over the weekend to explain his officer’s action last week in using teargas to break up a downtown demonstration. It was the second protest over the November shooting death of 17-year-old Jesus Huerta while handcuffed in the back seat of a patrol car. Authorities say the gunshot wound was self-inflicted.

“Please understand that our decision was not entered into lightly and distressing the communities of Durham was not our intent. As information becomes available we will work to provide it. After any major police action in the city a thorough review of the incident is conducted.”  A comment attributed to Lopez was posted to the Department’s Facebook page read. “A review of this incident will include, but is not limited to, assessing the tactics used, intelligence gathered, videos, literature collected, feedback and deployment decisions before, during and after this event.”

The posting read further  “Although we hope that such an incident does not repeat itself, we will learn from this incident and work to improve our practices wherever possible.”

The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the matter and Durham Mayor Bill Bell over the weekend called for information from an internal probe be made public. The victim’s family and several advocacy groups are calling for a federal investigation as well.