Posted on 07/14/2004 3:39:41 AM PDT by from occupied ga
DENVER - Police responding to a report of a woman being assaulted by her husband shot and killed the suspect's uncle, who was watching television in bed. The death, the third fatal police shooting in Denver this year, sparked a protest Tuesday outside the mayor's office, with activists chanting "stop killer cops." An aide said the mayor is examining officers' use of force. Police Chief Gerry Whitman said Monday that an officer mistook a soda can Frank Lobato was holding for a weapon and shot him Sunday after he moved suddenly. Lobato, 63, was an invalid who needed crutches to move around and until last week had been living in a homeless shelter, relatives said. "This situation involves two tragedies: a brutal case of domestic violence and a loss of life," Mayor John Hickenlooper said. It was the third fatal police shooting in Denver this year. Police said one man was threatening them with a knife and the other shot at officers during a high-speed chase. Cathy Sandoval had called police Sunday to report she had been held against her will and assaulted for 17 hours, police Detective John White said. She said she told police that her husband, Vincent Martinez, was unarmed and that his uncle was in an upstairs bedroom. Police borrowed a ladder to enter the home through a window after Martinez did not respond to knocks on the door, White said. When they opened a bedroom door upstairs, they saw a man pointing a silver object at them, police said. An officer shot Lobato once in the chest. Martinez was arrested Monday. About two dozen protesters marched to the mayor's office Tuesday to demand reforms. The mayor was in Washington, D.C., but the group met with his chief of staff. Activists blasted what they said was a police department unwilling to acknowledge deficiencies in training and oversight. "The shootings will continue until the city recognizes we have a police force that's out of control," protester Doug Vaughan said. "You can't trust police to police themselves." The mayor's chief of staff, Michael Bennet, said Hickenlooper has made police use of force a top priority. "The point is we have to figure out how to have a police department that protects the safety of people and the safety of officers," Bennet said. Police have been working to reform the department since a developmentally disabled teenager, Paul Childs, was killed by police last summer. Hickenlooper appointed a 38-member panel that last month made recommendations that included when force should be used. The city has agreed to pay $1.3 million to his family. In September 1999, Mexican immigrant Ismael Mena was shot during a drug raid at the wrong house. The city paid the Mena family $400,000.
Why is is that police only have to "follow departmental guidelines," but the rest of us have to follow laws?
Oh you can bet we'll hear this one justified on here as well... a civilian can't be killed by a policeman around here without those "law and order" freepers spitting on their graves by telling us that we have nothing to fear from the police if we aren't doing anything wrong..
This sounds pretty inept. And why on earth were they climbing through an upstairs window? Why not just break down the door? And the woman even TOLD them the uncle was upstairs. Although it seems a strange situation, the woman is getting beaten up for 17 hours, and the uncle is relaxing in bed drinking soda.
Affirmative Action cops....
Congress has now armed them...they get to carry concealed in any state in the union
while those honest citizens who pay their (and congresscritter's) salaries can not...f(or the most part) even carry in their own (the taxpayer's) home towns...
There is something mighty 'anti American' in all this.....
imo
I always wonder what it is that compells some people to cheer murder as long as it's murder by government bureaucrats. I wonder if the same people who feel that any police shooting is justified think that the holocaust was justified too.
What kind of soda? If it was a Coke, the cop must have thought the man had one of those red Glocks.
I dunno, but this definitely makes me want to rethink my bedroom window decor (to steel shutters maybe).
Something smells about the story. Something is missing.
Like maybe any justification at all for killing the guy?
The entire story. No justifying the killing.
Found this on another board. Can anybody say "UC"?
Fliers Offer Bounty for Denver Cops' Lives
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
DENVER — A recent deadly shooting of an innocent man by Denver cops has sparked a disturbing reaction: An unknown group has passed out fliers promising hefty rewards for a police officer’s life.
The fliers, placed under car windshields and discovered Tuesday morning, offer $5,000 for a “crooked cop’s life” and $10,000 for a badge. They’re signed by a group called “N.E.F.F.” but are missing a phone number.
Pictured on the handouts is 63-year-old Frank Lobato (search), a disabled man shot and killed July 11 by police officer Ranjan Ford Jr. (search) The officer, who was responding to a domestic violence call, mistook a soda can in Lobato’s hand for a gun.
Denver police are being watched closely these days because of 11 fatal shootings in 16 months — including that of a developmentally disabled 15-year-old boy, Paul Childs, whose face is also on the fliers along with Lobato’s.
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