Tucson SWAT shooting

[MikeG]

I don't know how many have followed this story. Pima County SWAT team serves a search warrant on a Marine veteran. (one of four houses searched) "Oath Keepers" group goes ballistic and starts spouting about tyranny and no knock warrants.

Killing by SWAT team in Tucson raises questions

is an article early but not as bad as other articles earlier in the week that claimed midnight no-knock warrants shooting an unarmed man. They claimed that SWAT got the wrong house, the wrong guy and that the former Marine just fell back on his training and did what anyone else did.

Well, more information came out. Last week the helmet cam video was released.


The Interview with the SWAT Sergeant was released:
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townn...dc793c.pdf.pdf

And today the Warrant Affidavit and PC statement was released.
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townn...567d70.pdf.pdf

Lo, and behold there is plenty of links of this guy to the drug cartel. He has no visible means of supporting the more than $100k in vehicles he has. He was under investigation for drugs by no less than three separate Law Enforcement organizations (Pinal, Pima and ICE). cat_docs crew arrested him on 5 felony drug and weapons charges a couple years ago.

Except for accidentally setting off the car alarm, I see nothing wrong with the warrant service they attempted. Plenty of announcements and visibility. There is plenty of PC to support the warrant. In addition, I hope they nail the MVD employee that ran the detectives' plate two days after he drove by the house as part of surveillance and was followed for 11 miles by one of Jose's truck (he owned 6 vehicles that were rotated for transport, the 4-5 families owned a total of 32 vehicles with no jobs and they were taking welfare. $100k in cash was found at one of the houses). Jose worked for ASARCO (verified in affidavit) but affidavit says they never saw him in work garb or go to a place of business. That might be an error.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why the are making this person the poster child for tyranny. For whatever reason, these groups that start out with noble purpose just get taken over by morons anti-government zealots that see the gestapo everywhere.

I feel better now. the docs are good read and it's scary to see what the press thought was relevant enough to publish but didn't quite seem to understand the most important elements in each one. I think the PC statement redacted the paragraph regarding the homicide but it's redacted so I can't tell.

[retdetsgt]

It always irritates the hell out of me when the media makes a big deal out of someone doing something stupid or illegal that they served in the military. About 10 years ago, guys on my department shot and killed some guy who had been claiming to be a former Vietnam vet with all these medals, etc. The media sucked right into it until some reporter had the gall to check. She found out (and published, bless her heart) that he was a Navy cook and had never gotten closer to Vietnam than The Philippines.

Last year, local police shot and killed some moron who was a Iraq veteran, but he was still an idiot. He had threatened his family and when the cops showed up, he came out with an AR-15, holding it over his head. The family was outraged, saying that this was the "international sign of surrender". I guess it didn't dawn on them how fast he could drop it down and start shooting.

Kind of like every panhandler sitting on a freeway ramp is a "homeless veteran". If you listen to and read the media, you'd think every veteran is a trigger happy, drug addict and drunk.

[MikeG]

I get the media being sensationalist. "Oath keepers" purports to be LE friendly and even tries to recruit LE and military types. I didn't expect them to the ones throwing the SWAT team under the bus.

I understand they don't like Dupnik (the Pima County sheriff made famous for his stupidity in the Loughner shooting press conference where he blamed guns and right wing talk radio), but Dupnik wasn't a trigger puller on the SWAT team and he wasn't the affiant on the warrant. It's like watching a noble purpose turn into a train wreck.

[MikeG]

Officers in Tucson SWAT shooting of former Marine cleared of wrongdoing


Update: The Pima County Attorney's office has cleared the SWAT team members of criminal wrongdoing.

The SWAT team involved in the shooting was made up of officers from Marana Police Dept., Oro Valley Police Dept., Sahuarita Police Dept.; and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

Guerena was at the end of a hallway holding a rifle when officers began shooting at him, SWAT officers said in narrative reports of the raid.

Guerena did not shoot, and his AR-15 rifle had the safety on and a round in the chamber when he was killed, sheriff's officials said.

"The officers were mistaken in believing that Mr. Guerena fired at them," Berkman wrote. "However, when Mr. Guerena raised the AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle in their direction, they needed to take immediate action to stop the deadly threat against them."

Officer Garcia was the first to shoot after "fearing for his life," Berkman said in his findings, and that first shot produced a muzzle flash that other officers thought was a muzzle flash coming in the opposite direction.

Officer Iglesias then slipped and fell backward, which the other officers mistook as a fall after being shot, Berkman wrote.

I still believe he didn't realize his safety was on. If he was clearing his own house and suspected bad guys, he would have taken it off had he known (or I should say, I would have taken the safety off). Does Marine training leave the safety on until the rifle is shouldered or is the rifle taken off safety immediately for CQB excercises?

Two other teams served search warrants on the two main subjects.

I'm glad it turned out this way. I was half expecting political pressure to justify only so many rounds and then somehow conclude the final X number of rounds weren't justified. Reason prevailed though. I don't have a duty status for the officers involved. This was the first time I think it was revealed that it was a multi-agency SWAT team and not a PCSO only SWAT time.

I hope the County Attorney releases the full report.

BTW, I think this was one of the arguments for suppressors on entry weapons. Bad guy guns make big boom and flash. Good guy guns don't.

[Wolfman]

The article I read said he raised the weapon and pointed it at officers... justified. If he didn't take the safety off that's his problem. The fact that he was a Marine merely means he had the capacity to successfully operate that weapons system. I'm with everyone else as well - just because they served in the military doesn't mean they're a good guy (especially knowing how many gangbangers are getting in nowadays).