Just another in a series of 'isolated incidents', I'm sure...
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Posted on 10/04/2009 3:55:15 PM PDT by Marechal
PHOENIX (CN) - A homeowner says a Phoenix police officer shot him six times in the back during a 911 home-invasion call, and the 911 tape recorded the officer's partner saying, "That's all right. Don't worry about it. I got your back. ... We clear?" The family says the officers were not aware that the 911 call was still recording as they spoke about covering up the shooting. In their complaint in Maricopa County Court, Anthony and Lesley Arambula say an armed intruder "crashed through the front window" of their home on Sept. 17, 2008 and ran into one of their son's bedrooms. Anthony, worried about his son who was still in his bedroom, says he "held the intruder calmly at gunpoint" and called 911. Phoenix Police officers already in the neighborhood heard the crash of the Arambulas' window. When they approached the house, Lesley says, she told Sgt. Sean Coutts that her husband was inside holding the intruder at gunpoint. Lesley says Coutts failed to pass on that information to the two other officers. Inside the house, the Arambulas say, Officer Brian Lilly shot Anthony six times in the back while he was still on the phone with the 911 operator - twice when he was on the ground. The officers ran into the bedroom after Anthony told them, "You just killed ... you just killed the homeowner. The bad guy is in there." The complaint states that Officer Lilly "admitted that it was only after Tony was laying, bullet-ridden, on the ground that he assessed the situation. The 911 tape continued to record what happened even after Officer Lilly unloaded his weapon into Tony, including Officer Lilly's post-shooting, one-word 'assessment': 'Fuck.' "Tony believed he was going to die; the 911 tape records his plaintive goodbye to his family: '... I love you ... I love you.' Then Tony made what he believed was a dying request to the officers; he did not want his young family to see him shot and bloodied. Officers callously ignored his request and painfully dragged Tony by his injured leg, through the home and out to his backyard patio, where they left him bloodied and shot right in front of Lesley, Matthew and Zachary." The Arambulas say the officers later dragged Anthony onto gravel, then put him on top of the hot hood of a squad car, and "drove the squad car down the street with Tony lying on top, writing in pain." According to the complaint, Lilly can be heard on the 911 tape telling Coutts, "We fucked up."
The Arambulas seek punitive damages for gross negligence, civil rights violations, failure to supervise, excessive force, deliberate indifference to medical needs, false arrest, and emotional distress. They are represented by Michael Manning with son Morrison Hecker.
And then call the arambulas for the dying perp.
Ok, I'm sorry.
5.56mm
Unfortunately, that is sometimes the attitude given here by some Freepers. While the police are unappreciated in a lot of ways, wearing a uniform doesn’t make them a hero or even decent all the time.
NA. The homeowner lived.
You are so right. Had a brother-in-law, grew up with him, who was a cop in a medium size Texas city. Showed me his throw down gun once. After he quit, I asked him why. He said he realized that he had developed the “cop attitude”, that there were two types of people: Cops (and their families) and Perps. Asked him, which am I? He said I was a Perp - definition you had already committed a crime, or you would eventually. He hung with cops - ate, drank, spent 95% of his time with them. Lucky for him he woke up in time. I have very little respect for cops anymore, though I think most of them are probably not like that. But I can’t tell which are which. I don’t trust my or my family’s safety to them.
“...gross negligence, civil rights violations, failure to supervise, excessive force, deliberate indifference to medical needs, false arrest, and emotional distress.”
That about sums it up!
In terms of police salary, that could be just 8 years of income. Some ordinary cops make over $250,000 per year. Just to add some perspective.
Juuuuuust another isolated incident, courtesy of the union-thug street gang in blue.
Well, look at that—the Phoenix Use of Force board has cleared the officer:
http://www.kpho.com/news/21121206/detail.html
Big surprise.
Ditto that.
And more details:
A few hours later, Lilly told internal affairs investigators that he fired only after Arambula pointed a gun his direction, the lawsuit states.
Police kept Arambula’s wife and kids from visiting Tony at the hospital until after investigators could interview him. The lawsuit also states that police tried to damage Arambula’s reputation and deflect blame toward the homeowner. Police visited a gun dealer who had sold Arambula a handgun and allegedly “suggested that Tony may have illegally obtained weapons,” the lawsuit says.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2009/09/homeowner_shot_by_police_while.php
How can someone be shot 6 times in the back and live to tell about it?
Proves the old adage that no situation can’t be made worst by adding cops.
Yep the real truth and cop version. Which do you believe?
New meaning for call 911 and die ... :-(
What did the 911 operator do? Did they call for an ambulance?
Which side is the side that says the cops didn’t “F up”?
I agree wholeheartedly , if they would have acknowledged their mistake and tried to do the right thing afterwards I would be Ok with their mistake. But They tried to cover it up. Hang Them
My jaw is on the floor over this one.
Why else do you think cops carry cellphones? That kind of radio traffic is not recorded and not subject to subpoena.
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