Posted on 05/23/2011 4:37:47 AM PDT by marktwain
A Tucson, Ariz., SWAT team defends shooting an Iraq War veteran 60 times during a drug raid, although it declines to say whether it found any drugs in the house and has had to retract its claim that the veteran shot first.
And the Pima County sheriff scolded the media for "questioning the legality" of the shooting.
Jose Guerena, 26, died the morning of May 5. He was asleep in his Tucson home after working a night shift at the Asarco copper mine when his wife, Vanessa, saw the armed SWAT team outside her youngest son's bedroom window.
"She saw a man pointing at her with a gun," said Reyna Ortiz, 29, a relative who is caring for Vanessa and her children. Ortiz said Vanessa Guerena yelled, "Don't shoot! I have a baby!"
Vanessa Guerena thought the gunman might be part of a home invasion -- especially because two members of her sister-in-law's family, Cynthia and Manny Orozco, were killed last year in their Tucson home, her lawyer, Chris Scileppi, said. She shouted for her husband in the next room, and he woke up and told his wife to hide in the closet with the child, Joel, 4.
SWAT officers fired at least 71 shots at suspect Jose Guerena, a former U.S. Marine, and a family struggles to put the pieces together.
Guerena grabbed his assault rifle and was pointing it at the SWAT team, which was trying to serve a narcotics search warrant as part of a multi-house drug crackdown, when the team broke down the door. At first the Pima County Sheriff's Office said that Guerena fired first, but on Wednesday officials backtracked and said he had not. "The safety was on and he could not fire," according to the sheriff's statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Question One: How many SWAT Officers entered the building?
Question Two: What was the approximate time line from the time the first officer entered the building and the last shot was fired?
What makes these questions hard?
They deal with hard facts with no emotional cover ups allowed. They peal away the lies and self-serving statements that are being used to cover up the incident.
Lets say a four man team entered the building and the incident lasted two minutes. You have eight man minutes where 71 shots were fired. That means every officer involved averaged 9 shots a minute; each officer fired roughly 18 shots. Of those 18 shots each officer fired 15 of them hit their target.
Why did each officer have to fire those many rounds in the incident?
Once to get to my final question the issue changes and any attempt to deflect questions fail.
What kind of questions am I asking - questions that should be asked at the corner's inquest.
I will never like seeing black uniforms. The very thought makes me ill.
In a tactical situation in war, it is understood. Low visibility at night.
In all but the most extreme police action, it is dumb.
We are surrounded by "illegal"druggies everywhere we go, and are taking our chances when we drive on any road in the country., as it is. I'm just saying, take away the crime, and all these SWAT teams can go pound sand.............
granny rant over.....
And that swat guy must have seen her through the window. yet they stormed that house, and sprayed 71 bullets, knowing there was a woman and child there.
What are you so angry about? Isn't this what we wanted, a government that would get tough on criminals? This is Dipstick's way of communicating to the Drug Cartels that his gang of murderous thugs can be just as barbaric, savage, violent and cruel as any Zeta.
The sheriff is a Progressive in a town of Progressives, therefore when he looks at a hard working former Marine in an intact and functional family, its natural for the people of Tuscon to consider that family a threat to their way of life and thus their enemy and an acceptable target to "make an example".
If the Drug Cartels don't realize that Dipstick is Tuscon's El Jefe, then SWAT will probably invade a Christian Church or two, slaughter women and children and burn down the place to establish dominance in this monkey dance.
FWIW, the hit rate number was inverted for propaganda reasons. The Zetas would laugh at Dipstick saying that he can only field an army of incompetent donut-munching street thugs and their inability to actually hit anything would not pose a realistic threat to the Cartels.
Remember, in Progressive-Think, you have to destroy the system in order to save it. Likewise, you need to murder and butcher civilians in order to save them being murdered and butchered.
I’m not a fan of no-knock raids but they were developed to prevent drug dealers from flushing the evidence down the toilet before the cops gained entry. If there were ways of collecting flushed items before they hit the main line, these raids could be eliminated.
Cops and Robbers.
Cowboys and Indians.
Now, I guess we’re going to play Cops and Vets.
It’s wrong to cross my fingers, isn’t it?
“As a result of the need for information surrounding the shooting of Jose Guerena by members of the Pima Regional SWAT Team, the public has received misinformation and emotionally-charged speculation.”
...along with way too much of the truth for the tastes of Sheriff Dumprik.
What a bunch of CYA in that lovely document. “Multiple agencies”, eh? But who was in charge, eh, Sheriff?
Prolly because we declared “war” on (some) drugs back in 1973.
Every since, it’s been one huge cluster-f&^k.
They have homes, too.
Be a pity of a group of Vets decided to go door knockin’.
I’d cry real tears over the... door.
What I would like to know is where is the search warrant.
The police have said that the warrant won’t ever be made public.
Did the murder victim’s wife ever get a copy?
How can a warrant not be produced? There has to be checks and balances to ensure A) the police are at the correct address and B) nothing not allowed in warrant is removed from the premises.
Where is the receipt for items taken?
Lots of questions here.
No, No thats friendly fire, acceptable losses.
“I’m not a fan of no-knock raids but they were developed to prevent drug dealers from flushing the evidence down the toilet before the cops gained entry.”
Anything goes in order to stop those evil drugs, eh?
In the name of that logic, we have these no-knock raids, dog searches at any vehicle stop, confiscation of property based on any drug residue, and any number of other affronts to liberty.
The property confiscation has now become a revenue stream, and will only escalate from here. How’d you like to lose your car or boat based on cocaine residue on your money, or planted evidence? Or even some drugs that a passenger left behind?
The “War on Drugs” is unworkable, utterly un-American, and needs to be scrapped.
1973? Further back than that. Since the 1920’s push to figure out what to do with all those unemployed prohibitionists.
I never thought I'd live to see you say that, either. But it is a good take on it. Illegal drug users kill one person: Themselves. They affect many, but they kill one.
However, the death toll -- of INNOCENTS -- from Ninja Cops alone is horrendous, and then we haven't even started talking about the Cartel violence.
Balony! He was a dead man from the moment they exited their vehicles. If he had have opened the door, he would have been shot full of holes while, "attempting to escape through the front door and resisting."
No because you don't understand the reason for the "raids" in the first place. It has nothing to do with evidence.
Their purpose is to terrorize the American citizenry, make us feel unsafe, make us feel controlled and helpless, and demonstrate that they can kill us whenever they want with impunity (so far).
The police are the equivalent of the Gestapo. Period.
But those days are long gone. It is about Power, and the ability to Make War on Citizens.
You are probably correct that small quantities of drugs could be flushed if the police don’t do a no-knock raid.
However, lethal force for a small drug seizure with only small prison sentences is not reasonable is most of the public’s view.
However, if there was a large presence of drugs, weapons, contraband, and electronic evidence at the house, there is no worry that it would be destroyed without the no-knock.
Wow. These motherhuggers think they are a power unto themselves.
Frankly, I'm surprised they even BOTHER with a warrant any more.
Whatever happened to being presumed innocent?
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