No weapon found; former cop says situation wasn't "suicide by cop," it was "just murder."
After shooting and killing 40-year-old father Manuel Orosco Longoria, of Eloy, Arizona, police released a statement on the incident as follows:
"Officers and deputies attempted to use less lethal means to take him into custody including firing several bean bag rounds and Taser deployments. The suspect refused to obey the commands and suddenly reached back into the vehicle. A deputy felt the suspect was reaching for the gun he reportedly had, so he then fired two rounds."
There's just one problem, video surfaced of the shooting and it Longoria had his hands above his head in surrender a second before the shooting, also it shows he made no movement to grab anything out of his car.
If that's not bad enough, no gun was found -- Longoria was unarmed.
Despite these facts, elected sheriff Paul Babeu (R), a shining exemplar of republican hypocrisy who came out of the closet in 2012 after his illegal immigrant gay lover said the virulently anti-immigration sheriff threatened to have him deported if he revealed their relationship, said the officer's actions were entirely justified, and if he were in the officer's position, he would "likely have shot him" even sooner.
"This suspect sadly and regrettably when given every opportunity to surrender and to comply and obey our commands, decided not to," Babeu said.
Despite Babeu's claims, when former Scottsdale Police Officer Jess Torrez viewed the video, he said what he witnessed wasn't a "suicide by cop" as suggested, but "just murder."
"You have multiple police officers on the scene and only one person makes the shot. That tells me that other officers at the scene did not feel there was justification to use deadly physical force," said Torrez.
Torrez said despite Longoria's behavior during the chase and initial part of the standoff, the only actions that were central to a decision to shoot, occurred right before the deputy opened fire.
"Officers are taught to look at the hands first and foremost. So if his hands are up in the air, he doesn't have anything in them. How do they justify using deadly force?" asked Torrez.
To respond to Torrez, if there's a will, there's a way. The officer who fired the fatal bullets was cleared within two weeks of the shooting and is already back on the force. Poster Comment:
These cops should obviously be put on trial.
