Free Republic

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., speaking in New Hampshire this morning, reminded her audience of the tragic Tucson shooting last year -- and also insinuated that the Tea Party, which she said regards political opponents as "the enemy," has enhanced divisiveness in Congress and had something to do with the shooting, at least indirectly. "We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago, where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords -- who is doing really well, by the way, -- [was shot]," Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee...

An elderly, former Marine who lost his wife of 54 years in the Tucson mass shootings expressed his anger at fellow victim and Congresswoman Gabbie Giffords. George Morris, 77, was shot in the leg and back in the attack just over a year ago as he tried to protect his wife from the gunman. Dorothy Morris, 76, was killed after the couple had gone to the Safeway supermarket to quiz Ms Giffords' political opinions. Mr Morris, who describes himself as 'ultra-conservative', even refused a visit from President Obama while he recovered in hospital following the shootings in Arizona. The couple...

Tucson's Mexican American studies program violates state law, an Arizona administrative law judge ruled Tuesday, paving the way for the program's possible demise. Judge Lewis D. Kowal affirmed a prior decision by the state's schools chief that the Tucson Unified School District's program violates a new law prohibiting divisive ethnic-studies classes. John Huppenthal, the state superintendent of public instruction, had deemed the program in violation in June. Among other things, the law bans classes primarily designed for a particular ethnic group or that "promote resentment toward a race or class of people." The school district appealed Huppenthal's ruling, and testimony...

“I have learned to live with trash,” said fifth-generation Arizona rancher Jim Chilton.He saw his once-beautiful ranch, just a few miles from the border with Mexico, is now dotted with clusters of crushed trees and cactus, whole hillsides have been turned into charred eyesores, years worth of his award-winning conservation projects obliterated — and the whole thing is littered with trash, tons and tons of trash. And some of the trash was dead bodies. Chilton had the misfortune of settling in the path of what would become a dangerous drug- and human-smuggling route on the U.S.-Mexican border, parallel with the...

The lockdown at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base ended Friday afternoon with officials saying no gunman or weapon was found in a search of a building on the grounds. Col. John Cherrey made a statement to journalists gathered outside the base at 6 p.m. praising the effort to make sure people on base were safe and announcing the end of the lockdown. But he did not answer questions about the incident that spanned the entire day and tied up police, fire and other emergency responders for hours following reports that a man armed with a gun had holed up in on...

TUCSON, AZ (KPHO/AP) - Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has stepped up security and limited traffic in and out of the base in the midst of reported gunfire. A Davis-Monthan Air Force Base spokesperson could not confirm reports of gunfire or say if anyone has been shot. An elementary school on the base is on lockdown, but a spokeswoman would release few details other than no one was being allowed in or out of the base

The KGUN9 News desk has received call from half a dozen people saying that David-Monthan AFB is on lockdown due to a possible shooter in the Civil Engineering building. KGUN9 News has not been able to reach anyone in authority to confirm those calls. One caller said she was inside the BX grocery store in the base when an announcement came over the PA stating that the store's doors would be locked due to reports of a shooter on base with an AK 47. Three callers stated that there were up to 2 shooters and that multiple shots had been...

TUSD [Tucson Unified School District] swiftly punishes “incorrect” speech. According to Adelita Grijalva, criticizing the radical politicization of students is forbidden. Last week Mark Stegeman said Mexican American Studies reminded him of a “cult”. Last night Mark Stegeman, was purged for his politically incorrect words. Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Governing Board President, Mark Stegeman was ousted from his seat as Board President and replaced by fellow Board Member Miguel Cuevas at last night’s Board meeting. Board member, Adelita Grijalva, called for the ouster, which passed 3-2 with Stegeman and Michael Hicks voting no. [Excerpted as required by source. Click...

Jose Guerena was killed by a Pima County SWAT team back in May. His wife, Vanessa, and 4-year-old son were in the home at the time but were fortunately unharmed when police fired dozens of bullets into the home. Guerena himself did not fire on police, but police reported he was holding a rifle when they broke the door down. Follow-up investigations have shown that Guerena was related to people likely involved in criminal activity, but Guerena himself appears to have been on the sidelines. Now Vanessa Guerena is filing suit against Pima County to the tune of $20 million...

St. Mark's United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall 1431 W. Magee Road Tucson, Ariz. 10 am local time

Racial and ethnic bigotry have long been rejected, but once again the left needs ideological bigotry to get them through their day. In the 1860s, the Civil War was fought to preserve the Union and reinforce the notion that blacks would never again be relegated to a value of 3/5 of a human being. Slavery was abolished, and the struggle for full equality commenced. In the 1940s, German Jews were loaded on to boxcars, stripped naked, and thrown into ovens for "delousing." My great-grandparents were the victims of the worst genocide in world history. My grandfather saved seven people including...

Today Tucson congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) cast her first vote since she was critically injured in a January shooting. You'll recall that in the weeks that followed, the media bemoaned the incivility -- supposedly predominantly conservative in nature -- of the political debate which had allegedly created a climate of hate. But there appears to to be no firestorm over how, just last week, Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons fantasized about President Obama sending a SEAL team to assassinate Tea Party-friendly House Republicans.

Pima County Republican Party leaders voted late Thursday to take party chairman Brian Miller’s keys to the GOP headquarters away and call a special meeting to try to remove him from his post. Miller has been under fire from party stalwarts for the past month, with multiple meetings called in recent weeks after he criticized a SWAT raid in May that resulted in the shooting death of a man law enforcement officers said they suspected of involvement in drug dealing. Several elected officials and party leaders have complained that his comments pitted the party against law enforcement at a time...

Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner was declared unfit to stand trial last month, a ruling that put government prosecutors in a position of having to try to restore Loughner to a mental state that would allow him to defend himself in court. Prison officials is Missouri, where Loughner currently is undergoing a mental evaluation, decided earlier this month to try to medicate Loughner against his will with anti-psychotic drugs. But lawyers representing Loughner have asked a federal judge to block prison officials from forcibly medicating Loughner, WSJ reports. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns is considering the issue at a hearing...

Tucson Police confirm that a weapon they found in Jose Guerena's home had been stolen in 2008. SWAT officers killed Guerena in his southwest side home last month when they went to serve a search warrant. Investigators say Guerena pointed an assault rifle at officers when they went in the house.

We want to know what you think: were SWAT officers justified in shooting Guerena?

As Mike Riggs noted earlier, helmetcam footage of the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff's Department SWAT raid that killed 26-year-old Marine Iraq veteran Jose Guerena has been released. The footage is part of a larger release that includes a debriefing [pdf] with Sgt. Bob Krygier, the primary supervisor per se during the operation; audio of the 911 call made by widow Vanessa Guerena (the only adult proximate witness to the slaying not affiliated with Arizona law enforcement); and a transcript [pdf] of Vanessa Guerena's interrogation shortly after Jose Guerena's death. Those links come from Fernanda Echávarri's excellent coverage in the Arizona...

Are these indications of cover-up, or just poor reporting? Earlier this week, Pima County Sheriff’s Department acknowledgeda SWAT raid where Tucson resident Jose Guerena was shot and killed during a multi-residence search warrant executed for an alleged home invasion ring. Sergeant Bob Krygier, SWAT supervisor, said no SWAT entered the house, but that shooting commenced “about two or three seconds” after breaching the front door. [Page 3, line 39 of PDF document] Officers didn’t enter Guerena’s house until after sending in a robot to determine he was dead. Reportedly, “about $100,000 in cash, marijuana and firearms were seized that morning...

Helmet camera footage of the SWAT team raid on the home of Jose Guerena has been released. Bob Owen noticed the same thing I did. One of the team members fell in the doorway upon breaching and entering the home. The video speaks for itself, but by way of summary, let’s observe the following. First, Mr. Guerena’s weapon, contrary to initial accounts by the SWAT team, was never taken off of safety. The team took no shots from him. Second, the team mills around for a while before breaching the home. Third, they don’t form into a stack. Fourth, absurdly,...

Jose Guerena, 26, was killed when a SWAT team came to his house to serve a search warrant Guerena's wife, Vanessa, said the SWAT team did not identify themselves Thinking it was a home invasion, Guerena got his rifle Now, Pima County Sheriff's officials are refuting original claims that Guerena fired at the SWAT members. In fact, they confirmed his safety was still on when his gun was recovered. Also, officials said that reports that some SWAT officers' shields were riddled with bullets are also untrue. SWAT gunned Jose down with 71 rounds fired in just about seven seconds; officials...

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - 9 On Your Side has uncovered startling new information in the case of a man SWAT team members killed Thursday. Medical attention was standing by to try to save Jose Guereña. Paramedics waited more than an hour. Then deputies sent them away By then Guereña was dead.

The five SWAT officers who shot and killed 26-year-old Jose Guerena while serving a search warrant May 5 have been cleared of any wrongdoing. The Pima County Regional SWAT team members -from four law enforcement agencies in the county - were justified in using deadly force against Guerena, according to an investigation by the Pima County Attorney's Office.

KGUN9 News viewers have been requesting more information about the scene of the May 5 SWAT shooting that killed former U.S. Marine Jose Guerena. Some have asked whether any drawings exist to show what happened in the house where the raid took place. Investigators have not released any drawings, but crime scene photographs issued late last week do give an idea of what happened. The picture gallery above provides highlights from more than a thousand photos that investigators have released to the media so far. According to the raid video and to testimony contained in various documents made public so...

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - The Pima County Medical Examiner has released the official autopsy report on the death of Jose Guerena, the 26-year-old former U.S. Marine who was shot to death in a SWAT raid on May 5. The report confirms what a spokesman previously said to KGUN9 News by phone, that Guerena's body had 22 bullet entrance wounds. The report also shows that Guerena had many exit wounds as well. There were no drugs in his system. The autopsy lists the manner of death as "homicide" caused by "multiple gunshot wounds." In the case of a Medical Examiner's report, this...

The 26-year-old man shot and killed by a SWAT team during a raid last month was struck 22 times and a toxicology exam showed there were no traces of drugs in his blood at the time of death, according to an autopsy report released Monday. SWAT officers fired 71 rounds at Jose Guerena from the doorway of his home while serving a search warrant the morning of May 5, officials from Pima County Sheriff’s Department have said. Less than a third of those shots hit Guerena, leaving some 49 rounds passing through walls and some hitting nearby homes, according to...

The SWAT officers who shot and killed a man while serving a search warrant last month gave at least two commands for someone to open the door before knocking it open, according to documents released Friday. The officers told investigators that, upon opening the door, they saw a man appear in the hallway holding a rifle before they saw what they thought were muzzle flashes from his gun. It was later determined Jose Guerena's rifle was on safety and he didn't fire at the officers. The Pima County Sheriff's Department released hundreds of evidence photos and transcribed interviews with the...

The older brother of the man shot and killed during a SWAT raid last month was the primary focus of a long-term drug-trafficking investigation, records released Thursday show. Jose Guerena and an assortment of relatives and acquaintances are mentioned in a report that chronicles a probe that stretched over two years of a suspected drug-trafficking ring in which several people appeared to have no source of income - except for monthly welfare checks several people named in the reports received - to account for their expensive cars and properties, the records released under a court order indicate. The Pima County...

Poll asks if Pima County Sheriff's Department should reconsider using SWAT team to execute search warrants.

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) – The raid on former Marine Jose Guerena's home has garnered national and international attention, raising numerous questions about excessive force and proper SWAT protocol, with Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik at the center on an increasingly heated and political debate. The Pima County Sheriff's Department released limited information on the debate, including yielding hundreds of documents, granting an interview with a lieutenant and raw video on the raid. Meanwhile, Dupnik has refused interviews, citing the need to maintain the integrity of the investigation. However, the raw video has not quelled the debate over the SWAT raid or...

The man killed in a SWAT team raid last month had been under investigation by the Pima County Sheriff's Department for 20 months as part of a major drug and homicide investigation, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Tuesday during an editorial meeting with the Star. But details of the investigation into Jose Guerena's activities won't be released because an informant for the Sheriff's Department could be in danger, Dupnik said. "There's a chance that our informant is going to get killed," he said. Guerena was killed when SWAT officers fired 71 rounds from the front door of his home in the...

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Pima County Superior Court Judge Deborah Bernini has postponed her decision on the warrant unsealing in the fatal SWAT shooting death case that left Jose Guerena, 26, dead. Judge Bernini said during a hearing Tuesday afternoon that she needs to meet with Pima County Sheriff's Investigators to discuss why the records should remain sealed since information has already been released in the case. Mike Storie, attorney for Pima County SWAT and Christopher Scileppi, attorney representing the Guerena family have already spoken publicly about the case. Judge Bernini hopes to have her final ruling made by the end...

The man killed in a SWAT team raid last month had been under investigation by The Pima County Sheriff’s Department for 20 months as part of a major drug and homicide investigation, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Tuesday during an editorial meeting with the Star. But details of the investigation into Jose Guerena’s activities won’t be released because a criminal informant for the sheriff’s department could be in danger, Dupnik said. “There’s a chance that our informant is going to get killed,” he said. Guerena died after SWAT officers fired 71 rounds from the front door of his home in the...

TUCSON, Ariz. – The death of a former Marine near Tucson continues to stir controversy. A group spent this Memorial Day protesting the SWAT raid which led to his death. Investigation documents reveal officers seized guns, banking documents and other items from the home but did not find drugs or cash.

"Why, why did you kill him?" a traumatized Vanessa Guerena begged to know as she was interrogated in a makeshift "command center" by detectives from the same Sheriff's Office that had just slaughtered her husband Jose. Her questioners, eager to exploit her trauma to extract information, initially refused to give her a straightforward answer. Jose, who had finished a graveyard shift at the Asarco copper mine, was sleeping when a SWAT team from the Pima County Sheriff's Office laid siege to his home on the morning of May 5. Vanessa was doing laundry, and the couple's four-year-old son Joel was...

A defense attorney for the Pima County Sheriff's SWAT team defended the actions of the officers, saying it was a "standard operation." "When you take into account five shooters, it doesn't seem excessive," says Mike Storie. The five officers fired 71 shots into a small hallway in seven seconds, killing former Marine Jose Guerena. Officers were trying to serve a search warrant, and say the 26-year-old pointed a gun at them. "This is a standard operation," says Storie. "The only thing unusual about this operation is unseen." Unseen, because while a one-minute videotape released by the sheriff's department shows the...

Records released by the Pima County Sheriff's Department this week show that the four houses served with search warrants the morning of May 5 - when Jose Guerena was shot and killed by a SWAT team - are less than four miles apart and are all connected to the Guerena family. And while initial reports were that doctors told the Guerena family that Jose had been shot 60 times, the Pima County medical examiner's preliminary report says he was shot 22 times. In its sole briefing on the incident, the Sheriff's Department said SWAT team members fired 71 rounds. Aside...

Victim's wife statemeet right after AZ SWAT kills her husband. Part 2 at: http://azstarnet.com/online/pdf/pdf_0955c118-8826-11e0-a691-001cc4c002e0.html

A Marine who was fatally shot in his Arizona home earlier this month reportedly never fired upon the SWAT team that fired at him 70 times. Jose Guerena, a 26-year-old father of two and veteran of the Iraq war, died on May 5 in his home near Tucson, Ariz., during an anti-drug police raid. Authorities initially reported that they thought Guerena fired upon them, but an investigation revealed that no shots were fired, ABC News reports. The SWAT team descended upon Guerena's home thinking it was one of four houses associated with a drug smuggling operation. But nothing illegal was...

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) -They say a picture is worth a thousand words. SWAT video, however, might be priceless, according to the lawyer representing SWAT in the shooting death of marine Jose Guerena. "In your opinion, is this now cut and dry once you see the video?" KGUN9 asked. "Yeah, you watch the video and clearly you hear sirens, you see them (SWAT) approach, you see them knock and announce several times. Clearly, anyone in the area will know police were there," explained SWAT lawyer Mike Storie. For the first time, we saw what happened the morning of May 5th. Until...

Iraq War Veteran Jose Guerena, 26, was shot and killed on May 5 by a Pima County SWAT team that fired 71 bullets through Guerena's front door. The video of that raid, captured on a SWAT helmet cam, is below. Video via The Agitator. See Reason's coverage of Guerena here.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department released video, audio, and more than 500 pages of incident reports and interview transcripts related to the May 5 shooting death of a former Marine. The shooting took place while officers were serving a warrant in a drug conspiracy case at Jose Guerena's home, on Redwater Street. The SWAT team arrived at the home just before 9:30 a.m., hoping that children would be out of the house and at school at that time. The video of the whole incident times out at 1 minute and 17 seconds. It starts with a team of SWAT officers...

This is video of the SWAT raid on Jose Guerena.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department released a video Thursday that shows a SWAT team shooting into a suspect's house. He died after being shot 60 times. Jose Guerena, 26, was shot and killed May 5 when Pima County authorities served a search warrant on his home. The Sheriff's department says five SWAT team members fired more than 70 rounds in less than 10 seconds after the former Marine pointed an assault rifle at officers. His wife contends the family thought the officers were robbers. He was shot 60 times

PHOENIX – A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage that wounded U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is mentally incompetent to stand trial, putting the criminal case against him on hold indefinitely. The decision by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns means Jared Lee Loughner, 21, will be sent to a federal facility for up to four months in a bid to restore his competency. Loughner, dressed in a khaki prison suit and sporting bushy, reddish sideburns, was removed from the hearing after an outburst and had to watch part of the proceeding on a TV screen...

Jose Guereña survived two tours in Iraq, but he couldn't survive his own government. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik infamously railed in January of this year that Arizona is a “Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”One must wonder if the “prejudice and bigotry” he considers endemic to Arizona is to blame for the death of U.S. Marine veteran Jose Guereña, killed when Dupnik’s deputies gunned him down in his home. They fired 71 shots. They hit him 60 times. And then, as if this wasn’t enough, Dupnik’s deputies blocked paramedics for an hour and 14 minutes from approaching the scene, denying...

A humanitarian group said on Tuesday it has given emergency GPS location devices to Mexican human smugglers in a controversial bid to save immigrants' lives as they break into increasingly remote desert stretches of the U.S. border this summer. Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of Tucson-based Humane Borders, said he gave five cell-phone sized location beacons to a church group in Mexico's northern Sonora state earlier this month to distribute to human smugglers, known as "coyotes." The aim is for the coyotes to use the devices to summon rescue if they get into trouble as they guide migrants on the dangerous...

CALLING ALL OATH KEEPERS, ALL VETERANS, ALL PATRIOTIC POLICE OFFICERS, ALL GUN OWNERS, AND ALL LIBERTY LOVING AMERICANS. This is an urgent call-out to all Oath Keepers, all veterans, all patriotic police officers, all Americans who cherish our liberty and our Constitution, and to all liberty leaders and patriotic organizations to join us in Tucson, Arizona this Memorial Day, May 30, 2011 to take a stand in defense of our Constitution, which our war dead fought to defend, and to take a stand against the egregious policy of using SWAT teams to serve search warrants on veterans and gun owners...

TUCSON, Ariz. -- According to the lawyer defending the SWAT team that killed Jose Guerena, the Iraq war vet they shot 60 times in a raid was part of a home invasion ring. His family says prove it. On May 5 members of the Pima County SWAT team were serving a search warrant at the Guerena family home. The sheriff's department said the home was part of a narcotics conspiracy case. "The information they had that there was an organization in town, a violent organization that was dealing in drugs, drug rip offs, home invasions," said attorney Michael Storie. Storie...

...no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (emphasis added) The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land…. No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law. Sections 3 and 8 of the “Declaration of Rights” from the Arizona State Constitution’s “Declaration of Rights” People seeking to defend the manifestly indefensible often sabotage themselves by disclosing critical details...

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Guerena family attorney Christopher Scileppi said he's working with a dead Marine's honor, and a family's grief.  He wants to see proof to back up attorney Mike Storie's account of the SWAT raid that left Jose Guerena dead. Storie held a news conference Thursday and released several new details about the May 5 raid at the Guerena house that have been kept private until now.  He detailed why SWAT was serving a search warrant and what they found, and gave a reason for why paramedics waiting at the scene were not allowed inside the house to treat...