[release]TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Jose Guerena Ortiz was sleeping after an exhausting 12-hour night shift at a copper mine. His wife, Vanessa, had begun breakfast. Their 4-year-old son, Joel, asked to watch cartoons.
An ordinary morning was unfolding in the middle-class Tucson neighborhood - until an armored vehicle pulled into the family's driveway and men wearing heavy body armor and helmets climbed out, weapons ready.
They were a sheriff's department SWAT team who had come to execute a search warrant. But Vanessa Guerena insisted she had no idea, when she heard a "boom" and saw a dark-suited man pass by a window, that it was police outside her home. She shook her husband awake and told him someone was firing a gun outside.
A U.S. Marine veteran of the Iraq war, he was only trying to defend his family, she said, when he grabbed his own gun - an AR-15 assault rifle.
What happened next was captured on video after a member of the SWAT team activated a helmet-mounted camera.
The officers - four of whom carried .40-caliber handguns while another had an AR-15 - moved to the door, briefly sounding a siren, then shouting "Police!" in English and Spanish. With a thrust of a battering ram, they broke the door open. Eight seconds passed before they opened fire into the house.
And 10 seconds later, Guerena lay dying in a hallway 20-feet from the front door. The SWAT team fired 71 rounds, riddling his body 22 times, while his wife and child cowered in a closet.
"Hurry up, he's bleeding," Vanessa Guerena pleaded with a 911 operator. "I don't know why they shoot him. They open the door and shoot him. Please get me an ambulance."
When she emerged from the home minutes later, officers hustled her to a police van, even as she cried that her husband was unresponsive and bleeding, and that her young son was still inside. She begged them to get Joel out of the house before he saw his father in a puddle of blood on the floor.
But soon afterward, the boy appeared in the front doorway in Spider-Man pajamas, crying.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department said its SWAT team was at the home because Guerena was suspected of being involved in a drug-trafficking organization and that the shooting happened because he arrived at the door brandishing a gun. The county prosecutor's office says the shooting was justified.
But six months after the May 5 police gunfire shattered a peaceful morning and a family's life, investigators have made no arrests in the case that led to the raid. Outraged friends, co-workers and fellow Marines have called the shooting an injustice and demanded further investigation. A family lawyer has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the sheriff's office. And amid the outcry in online forums and social media outlets, the sheriff's 54-second video, which found its way to YouTube, has drawn more than 275,000 views.
The many questions swirling around the incident all boil down to one, repeated by Vanessa Guerena, as quoted in the 1,000-page police report on the case:
"Why, why, why was he killed?"
---
Outside the family's stucco home, a giant framed photo of Guerena in his Marine uniform sat placed in the front bay window, American flags waved in the yard and signs condemning his death were taped to the garage door.
The 27-year-old Guerena had completed two tours in Iraq, and a former superior there was among those who couldn't make sense of his death.
Leo Verdugo said Guerena stood out among other Marines for his maturity and sense of responsibility. Verdugo, who retired as a master sergeant last year after 25 years in the Marines, placed Guerena in charge of an important helicopter refueling mission in the remote west desert of Iraq.
"He had a lot of integrity and he was a man of his word," Verdugo said.
Verdugo, who also lives in Tucson, said Guerena came to him for advice in 2006 about whether to retire from the Marines and apply to the Border Patrol.
When Verdugo ran into Guerena and his wife at a Motor Vehicle Department office about a month before Guerena was killed, Verdugo said that Guerena told him that the Border Patrol had turned him down because of problems with his vision and that he had instead taken a mining job.
Those who worked with Guerena at ASARCO'S Mission Mine said the man they knew would never be a part of drug smuggling.
"I don't care what the cops say. I don't believe for one moment Jose was involved in anything illegal," said Sharon Hargrave, a co-worker, adding through tears: "They were judge, jury and executioner, and there was no excuse."
Guerena worked as a "helper" at two crushers in the mine, shoveling piles of rocks that fall from conveyor belts and wheel-barrowing heavy debris. "No one in their right mind" would choose this work, which paid about $41,000 a year, if they were bringing in drug smuggling money, Hargrave said.
"He was a hell of a worker," she said. "He's got good judgment and I could trust him."
She said Guerena talked constantly about his wife and two sons, Joel and Jose Jr., 5, who'd gone to school the morning of the shooting. "I know he was definitely in love with his wife and in love with his kids," she said.
Kevin Stephens, a chief steward at Mission mine and head of the miners' union there, said bluntly: "Personally, I think he was murdered, and that is the feeling that is out here."
But the sheriff's office said just because Guerena was a Marine and worked at a mine doesn't mean he couldn't be involved in drug trafficking.
"We know from our experiences that good people turn their lives around and do bad things, and this guy was bad irrespective of his honorable discharge as a Marine," said sheriff's chief of investigations Rick Kastigar.
He said Guerena was suspected of involvement in a drug operation that specialized in ripping off other smugglers. One tip held that Guerena was "the muscle" of the organization, or in Kastigar's words, "the individual that was directed to exact revenge."
An affidavit supporting the search warrant that precipitated the raid describes the department's suspicions about Guerena in a drug investigation that appeared more focused on his brother, and his brother's father-in-law. Guerena's brother does not have a listed number and other family members have ignored written requests from the AP for comment.
Sheriff's Capt. Chris Nanos, who heads the criminal investigations division and oversaw the Guerena case, said that high-powered rifles and bulletproof vests that were found in Guerena's home after the shooting back up investigators' belief that Guerena was involved in drug trafficking. A shotgun found in the home was reported stolen in Tucson in 2008.
In the affidavit, sheriff's Detective Alex Tisch laid out the case against Guerena's family. It details two instances of drug seizures, one in April 2009 in which Jose Guerena was found in a home with other people who had just dropped off 1,000 pounds of marijuana at a separate residence, and another in October 2009 in which a man who had met with Guerena's brother was found with drugs and weapons.
Neither Guerena nor his brother was charged.
The affidavit also cites two traffic stops of Jose Guerena.
The first was on Jan. 28, 2009, when an officer pulled Guerena and two other men over north of Tucson. The officer seized a gun from Guerena, a marijuana pipe from Guerena's cousin and marijuana hidden in canisters of lemonade and hot cocoa that were under the feet of Guerena's friend.
The officer arrested Guerena on charges of weapons misconduct, marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. But prosecutors filed no charges against him.
The other stop came Sept. 15, 2009, when the sheriff's office pulled over a truck leaving the home of Guerena's brother. Jose Guerena was in the passenger seat and another man was driving. Officers searched the truck and found commercial-sized rolls of plastic wrap that they say are commonly used to package marijuana. No arrests were made.
Tisch wrote in the affidavit that the past arrests of Guerena and members of his family, combined with observations during months of surveillance led detectives to believe that the family was operating a mid-level drug-trafficking organization in the Tucson area.
The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff's office says.
---
After the SWAT video circulated, people who didn't know Guerena traveled from as far as California to march in protest of his shooting, and an Alaska woman began an online petition calling for a federal investigation of the SWAT team. Hundreds of people across the country have written on several Facebook pages dedicated to Guerena with messages that include, "He fought for our country, now we must fight for him."
The Guereno family's lawyer, Christopher Scileppi, filed a lawsuit on their behalf seeking damages from the sheriff's office, the officers involved in the shooting and other officials. The lawsuit didn't specify how much money the family was seeking, but a notice of claim filed Aug. 9 put the amount at $20 million.
"During this investigation, extremely little evidence, if any, was found to raise even a suspicion that Jose Guerena was involved in any possible drug trafficking ring," the notice says.
Scileppi said the fact that Guerena had been fired at 71 times and hit 22 times was "grotesque," and "almost a caricature of an overly excited group of poorly trained law enforcement agents."
Kastigar sharply disputed that, calling the Pima County SWAT team one of the best of its kind in the nation. "We're not a bunch of country bumpkins in southern Arizona with big bellies and cowboy hats," he said.
The shooting was justified, he said, because Guerena pointed his AR-15 at the SWAT officers and said, "I've got something for you," before they opened fire.
The five SWAT team members who shot Guerena believed that he had fired his weapon first, he said. Subsequent investigation revealed that the gun's safety was on and hadn't been fired. Ultimately, that is not an issue, Kastigar said.
"What reasonable person comes to the front door and points a rifle at people?" he said. "It takes several milliseconds to flip the switch from safety to fire and take out a couple of SWAT officers. I'm firmly of the opinion that he was attempting to shoot at us."
The officers laid down "suppressive" fire because one had tripped and fallen and the others thought he'd been shot.
"You point a gun at police, you're going to get shot," Kastigar said.
The five officers who shot Guerena declined to speak to the AP through Mike Storie, a police union lawyer who represents them and defends their actions.
"Anytime that they are faced with a serious, imminent and deadly threat, they are entitled and justified to use deadly force," he said. "And when Guerena came around the corner and lifted an AR-15 and pointed it at them, that provided the justification."
An independent expert, Chuck Drago, a former longtime SWAT officer for Fort Lauderdale, Fla., police who now does consulting on use of force and other law enforcement issues, said that the shooting itself appeared justified.
"It's a horrible, horrible tragedy, but if they walked in the door and somebody came at them with an assault rifle, that would be a justifiable response," said Drago. "It doesn't matter whether he's innocent or not."
But after examining elements of the search affidavit, Drago questioned whether the sheriff's office truly had probable cause.
"When you back up and look at why they're there in the first place and whether the search warrant was proper, my mind starts struggling," Drago said. "There are a lot of things that don't make a lot of sense."[/release]
Source: [url=http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SWAT_TEAM_SHOOTS_MARINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT]Slinky linky[/url]
Has SWAT teams ever done something good? How are there this many fuck ups with these SWAT teams? I'd expect them to have a ton of info to do these warrentless busts.
And 71 bullets? Holy shit, 10 isn't enough?
Seriously, fuck the drug war. Ruining innocent people's lives.
On top of that, little to no evidence was found of him even being involved with anything.
They all need to get fired for this.
The SWAT team themselves shouldn't be blamed, they simply responded to what they thought was the situation, it's the guy that organized this shit that should be blamed.
you posted an old story. the dad/marine was a drug dealer and was confirmed to be a hostile target.
Why would she say "There's someone firing a gun outside" rather then "There's police here you probably shouldn't grab a gun."
I mean if you think about it, it was a scary situation for everyone involved and pretty much nobody knew what the fuck was going on.
[QUOTE=Higginz511;33466439]Why would she say "There's someone firing a gun outside" rather then "There's police here you probably shouldn't grab a gun."[/QUOTE]
Because she didn't know there was police outside.
Fight for your country just to die in your own home by those you fought for.
[QUOTE=Higginz511;33466439]Why would she say "There's someone firing a gun outside" rather then "There's police here you probably shouldn't grab a gun."[/QUOTE]
I don't think she understood it was the police.
SWAT use AR-15s?
To be very fair the shooting was justified but it's sad how that had to happen
(the SWAT teams saw a guy with a gun, they did what was natural and responded)
So he pointed his Ar-15 at the swat team and everything is the swat teams fault?
[QUOTE=InsanePyro;33466546]SWAT use AR-15s?[/QUOTE]
It depends, but yeah they do
the whole point of SWAT is that they're better armed and trained than normal officers
(hence the name Special Weapons And Tactics)
Wow, that's crazy. The guy did have a gun so I can understand why they shot him, and he thought there was someone breaking in, which is why he had the gun.
I'd say the blame goes to whoever ordered the SWAT team on his house.
[QUOTE=CakeMaster7;33466570]To be very fair the shooting was justified but it's sad how that had to happen
(the SWAT teams saw a guy with a gun, they did what was natural and responded)[/QUOTE]
Justified how? A man scared for his family is in attempt to protect them and ends up being killed over some weed?
The article asks "why was he shot?". The simple answer? he was point a damn gun at a SWAT team. It doesn't take a genius to get that.
[QUOTE=Shiftyze;33466609]Justified how? A man scared for his family is in attempt to protect them and ends up being killed over some weed?[/QUOTE]
Here's an answer:
[QUOTE=hoodoo456;33466613]The article asks "why was he shot?". The simple answer? he was point a damn gun at a SWAT team. It doesn't take a genius to get that.[/QUOTE]
By "justified," I mean that the SWAT themselves did nothing wrong, it was all just a big misunderstanding that went wrong
As somebody above me posted, he pointed a gun at a SWAT team, and somehow it's there fault.
[QUOTE=CakeMaster7;33466633][/QUOTE]
Someone is entering his house and says police then immediately breaks in and shoots. He had, what, 1-2 seconds to process that?
[QUOTE=Shiftyze;33466688]Someone is entering his house and says police then immediately breaks in and shoots. He had, what, 1-2 seconds to process that?[/QUOTE]
I'll give you that, but still, you think that he would hear them say police before charging out there with a rifle.
It seems an awful lot like this guy is clean. Just because his brother is sketchy doesn't mean he is
[QUOTE=hoodoo456;33466762]I'll give you that, but still, you think that he would hear them say police before charging out there with a rifle.[/QUOTE]
And you would think that as a soldier he'd be smart enough to not charge at someone breaking into his house
if he was smart he might be behind cover or in another room so he could process the situation before acting
[QUOTE=hoodoo456;33466762]I'll give you that, but still, you think that he would hear them say police before charging out there with a rifle.[/QUOTE]
Because only legitimate officers of the law are allowed to yell that word while breaking into peoples homes and killing them.
[QUOTE=DarkMonkey;33466789]Because only legitimate officers of the law are allowed to yell that word while breaking into peoples homes and killing them.[/QUOTE]
Huh? what does that have to do with this story?
[QUOTE=hoodoo456;33466864]Huh? what does that have to do with this story?[/QUOTE]
He's saying that how does the guy know that it isn't a robber or murderer yelling police and then going in
Hoodoo, He was killed because it was suspected, SUSPECTED that he had something to do with drugs! that's bullshit, A bunch of people come into your home and try to take you away from your family what are you going to do.
Why the hell are people with guns so insanely trigger-happy? 71 bullets? Wow.
Reminds me of that incident where a kid was shot 63 times for whatever reason. 63! What, do these people make it a point to stand over the body and keep on pulling the trigger or something?
[QUOTE=CakeMaster7;33466876]He's saying that how does the guy know that it isn't a robber or murderer yelling police and then going in[/QUOTE]
Good point, But I think he could evaluate things a bit better before running at cops with a rifle in hand.
[editline]27th November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Shadowwalker;33466892]Hoodoo, He was killed because it was suspected, SUSPECTED that he had something to do with drugs! that's bullshit, A bunch of people come into your home and try to take you away from your family.[/QUOTE]
I never said the SWAT teams entrance was lawful, but how were they to know that he wasn't going to shoot him? I'm not trying to defend the cops, what they did was very much wrong, but it was more his fault then theirs he got killed.
[QUOTE=just-a-boy;33466899]Why the hell are people with guns so insanely trigger-happy? 71 bullets? Wow.
Reminds me of that incident where a kid was shot 63 times for whatever reason. 63! What, do these people make it a point to stand over the body and keep on pulling the trigger or something?[/QUOTE]
If the weapons are fully automatic (I don't know whether SWAT use semi-auto or full auto) and there are multiple officers then it's not exactly hard to shoot 71 times
with the kid shot 63 times it's not the same thing since it was multiple officers with pistols, not assault rifles or submachine guns
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
