Courthouse News – by VICTORIA PRIESKOP
ALBUQUERQUE (CN) – Albuquerque police responded to a report of a man throwing rocks with a tank, robots, flash bangs and 150 rounds of tear gas, the dead man’s family claims in court.
Santiago Chavez killed himself after a 12-hour standoff that began when officers were dispatched to investigate a report of someone throwing rocks, his estate claimed Wednesday in Federal Court.
Officers found no evidence of rock-throwing, but neighbors said Chavez had a gun but hadn’t threatened or assaulted anyone with it, his mother Rachael Hernandez said in the lawsuit.
When officers went to Chavez’s home on June 12, 2012 and demanded he come out to speak with them, Chavez refused, so they called in the SWAT team. As the standoff continued and intensified, Chavez, who had a history of mental illness, began to threaten suicide.
The SWAT teams “sent in baton rounds, played sirens, shot chemical munitions into the home, shot tear gas into the home, utilized robots to breach the entry to the home, sent robots into the home, used a bear cat to deploy chemical munitions, and utilized multiple other SWAT Tactics, during which decedent could be heard to be yelling, ‘The police are trying to kill me,'” his mother says in the complaint.
The incident ended when Chavez shot himself in the head in view of New Mexico police Officer Shane Todd, who wrote at the end of his police report, “Mission complete,” according to the lawsuit.
Chavez’s mother seeks punitive damages from Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Police Department and APD Officers Jim Fox and Moises Grossetete, for wrongful death, excessive force, warrantless arrest, and other civil rights violations.
She is represented by Rachel Higgins and Kari Morrissey.
Albuquerque police have been widely criticized for excessive use of force, by citizens and federal investigators.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/05/15/police-answered-rocks-with-tank-mom-says.htm
welcome to Gaza
Now they’re hiding in their armored vehicles and unleashing a military assault because someone was throwing rocks?
This story reveals what cowardly pieces of trash the pigs really are. I can guarantee that the punks are going to run like frightened little girls as soon as they come across some real resistance.
(this is no prophecy — we’ve already seen it happen in New Orleans. More than half the police force ran away because of a flood and a little looting)
They’re just like any other street gang. They belong to the gang because they’re scared little sissies, and without overwhelming firepower and numbers, they don’t approach anyone.
When you see a badge on someone’s chest you should interpret it to mean “I’m a scared little faggot who picks on women and children”.
Who pays the bill for all the man hours, equipment, munitions expended, paperwork, investigations, coroner, burial?
When they send in a hit squad like this, it must run to the 10’s of thousands.
“When officers went to Chavez’s home on June 12, 2012 and demanded he come out to speak with them, Chavez refused, so they called in the SWAT team.”
So if a person doesn’t come out of their house, that’s an excuse to send in SWAT??? WTF? You mean ONE policeman can’t talk to ONE civilian? You mean they couldn’t just wait him out or leave him alone, knowing that there was absolutely no proof that anything happened in the first place to even prompt them to do anything at all?
Again, when a person is unarmed, the cops come in with guns blazing, but when ONE person is armed, they chicken out and call SWAT. It’s pathetic. Nothing says coward like “cop”. And they wonder why people make fun of them. They bring it on themselves.
“As the standoff continued and intensified, Chavez, who had a history of mental illness, began to threaten suicide.”
Oh brother… 🙄 Here we go with the “mental illness” excuse to cover up the fact that the police are cowards and used excessive force in every way.