LAPD Shooting

UPDATE 7/21 1700hrs

I have blogged about this shooting a few times since this post, check them out here:

LAPD Shooting, Update
LAPD Shooting, Update II
Al “Race Baiter” Sharpton
LAPD Shooting, Update III
LAPD Shooting, Update IV

Time to comment on the recent shooting thats all over the news. If you are not aware here is a timeline:

1400hrs – Lorena Lopez files a Domestic Violence report against her husband who is not at the scene

1547hrs – 911 call from a Raul’s Auto Sales in Watts where a girl told the operator that her father was threatening to harm her, she asked for help. The phone was disconnected at which point the operator attempted to call back. Someone answered but no one spoke although a struggle was heard.

1553hrs – A unit arrives and immediately takes gun fire from Lorena Lopez husband Jose Raul Pena. They ask for assisting units and set up a containment of the location.

1700hrs – The girl who originally called 911, Pena’s stepdaughter, escapes while Pena is firing at the officers. She then tells police that Pena had been doing cocaine and alcohol and was threatening the entire family. She also tells them that Pena’s daughter, Suzy Lopez, is inside with him.

1730hrs – Hostage negotiators speak to Pena for a few minutes until Pena told them he wasn’t go to jail and then hung up.

1820hrs – SWAT gets a clear shot at Pena and then believing he was wounded near the door to the store they quickly move in. They discover that he is not down but is mobile and was shooting at them from behind a wall. One officer, Daniel Sanchez, is hit in the right shoulder and gets pulled to safety. SWAT throws a flash bang into the office he is holed up in and engages the suspect. They then discover both Pena and the toddler dead.

A autopsy today discovered the toddler was killed by a police bullet:

The 19-month-old toddler who died during a gunfire exchange between police and her father was killed by a single police bullet to the head, the Los Angeles County coroner said Wednesday.

The report said it came from a Los Angeles Police Department officer’s rifle.

The girl’s father, Jose Raul Pena, died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds, the coroner said.

I can’t tell you what these officers must be going through. I can’t even imagine. This is a tragic case but the family sounds like they are now looking for a big payday….no waiting for the investigation, no attempts to understand that the suspect, the girls father, was at fault for this whole thing. No, they bring up race and so on and so on:

“The police killed my daughter,” said Lorena Lopez, who had lived with Pe?a for six years, in brief comments to reporters Tuesday. “I want justice.”

At a nearby news conference, Luis Carrillo, an attorney representing the family, placed the police action in what he called “a long history of excessive force against minorities” and an equal history of covering it up by the LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

So there you go, it’s started. The police went in shooting because they were Hispanic, they don’t care if they kill them Hispanics. Oh for crying out loud.

This already sounds like a winner of a family:

Police said the stepdaughter was taken to a mental health facility after the incident because “she was blamed by the family for what happened.”

Now the following is a point that should be made and made often:

Experts in police tactics said Tuesday that the actions of the officers appear to fall within general SWAT guidelines. As the inquiry moves forward, experts said, investigators will probably focus on what was said and done in the moments before Pe?a and Susie were shot to death.

While police often try to wait out hostage situations in hopes that they can be resolved peacefully, experts said the circumstances of this case may have warranted immediate action because the suspect was firing at officers and reportedly threatened to kill himself and Susie.

Once the SWAT team entered the building and realized Pe?a was still shooting, the team’s options were hard to assess, said Jeffrey Eglash, a former federal prosecutor and past inspector general for the Los Angeles Police Commission.

“They may have been able to retreat, they may have been able to find cover, they may have felt that the danger to the child was so great that they needed to stop,” the suspect, Eglash said.

Bratton said his officers ? who he has said are traumatized by the child’s death ? were “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

“If a police officer is injured or a suspect goes down there may well be a need to go in,” said Bratton, noting reasons for immediate SWAT action. “In Columbine if you remember they didn’t move in fast enough and they were severely criticized ? because things were going on inside.”

If he had killed that girl while the police we’re outside waiting for him to give up, what do you think would of happened. The same damn thing. “The police are racists, they dont care about minorities so they let him kill that girl….they should of went in and got him…blah blah blah”

Just like he said, we are damned if we do, damned if we don’t. No way to win with money grubbers like these.

The death of this girl should be blamed on the person at fault. Jose Raul Pena.

Check out The Horseback Riders and The Legend Of Brian Long who have been blogging about this incident.