He Served the Empire Abroad; The Regime Killed Him in His Home
Posted by William Grigg on May 11, 2011 01:16 PM
Jose Guerena survived two combat tours of Iraq, only to become a casualty of the Regime’s longest war — the one waged against its domestic subjects in the name of drug prohibition. The former Marine was slaughtered by a SWAT team during a May 5 assault on his home in Arizona.
Guerena’s wife, Vanessa, heard a noise outside the couple’s home near Tucson at about 9 a.m. Jose, who had just gone to bed after pulling a 12-hour shift at the Asarco Mine, suspected — correctly, as it turned out — that his family was threatened by an armed criminal gang. Grabbing his AR-15, Guerena instructed his wife and four-year-old son to hide in the closet while he confronted the intruders. According to Mrs. Guerena, the stormtroopers from the Pima County Regional SWAT team never identified themselves as police; they simply stormed into the home and started shooting.
“I saw this guy pointing me at the window, Vanessa recalled in a television interview. “So, I got scared. And, I got like, ‘Please don’t shoot, I have a baby.’ I put my baby [down]. [And I] put bag in window. And, I yell ‘Jose! Jose! Wake up!’”
“A deputy’s bullet struck the side of the doorway, causing chips of wood to fall on his shield,” recounts the Arizona Daily Star, paraphrasing an account provided by Pima County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) functionary Michael O’Connor. “That prompted some members of the team to think the deputy had been shot.” Guerna never fired a shot; the marauders who invaded his home fired no fewer than seventy-one. As is standard procedure in such events, the invaders claimed that Guerna had fired on the officers, as he had every moral and legal right to.
Neither Jose nor his wife had a criminal history of any kind. The attack on their home was described as a narcotics enforcement operation, but there are no reports that narcotics were found at the residence – - even though the invaders reportedly “seized” (that is, stole) something that belonged to the victim.
“Tucson is notorious for home invasions and we didn’t want it to look like that,” insisted PCSO spokesman O’Connor, exhibiting the dull-witted refusal to acknowledge the obvious that typifies tax-feeders of his station. He also maintained that the death squad “went lights and sirens and we absolutely did not do a `no-knock’ warrant,” a claim refuted by the only surviving witness, Vanessa Guerena. Such details are morally inconsequential, since there was no reason — apart from the institutional vanity of the PCSO and the indecent eagerness of the armored adolescents who compose its SWAT team — to conduct a paramilitary raid to serve a routine search warrant.
“I never imagined I would lose him like that, he was badly injured but I never thought he could be killed by police after he served his country,” lamented the wife of the murdered ex-Marine, who died on his feet, a rifle in his hand, and his face to an unexpected enemy. The grim but unavoidable truth is this: We shouldn’t be at all surprised that a Regime capable of sending Americans abroad to terrorize Iraqis in their homes would employ the same state terrorism against Americans here at home.
The SWAT team that murdered Iraq War veteran Jose Guerena in his home near Tucson kept a medical team waiting for more than an hour as the 26-year-old father bled to death, and then “sent them away,” reports Tucson ABC affiliate KGUN.
Jose’s wife Vanessa called 911 after seeing a knot of armed men approaching her home. She insists that the assailants never identified themselves as police. After waking up her husband — who had just finished the graveyard shift at a local mine — Vanessa hid in a closet with their four-year-old son. Jose grabbed his AR-15 and confronted the invaders, who burst through the door and started shooting. The intruders fired a total of 71 shots. The assailants initially claimed that Jose had fired on them — an entirely appropriate response to a criminal invasion of his home — but later admitted that the husband and father was killed before he could pull the trigger.
After the fatal fusillade, Vanessa pleaded with the SWAT team to call for medical assistance; rather than doing so, they held help at bay until their victim was dead, supposedly in the interest of “security.”
KGUN “requested the emergency call records for Drexel Heights Fire Rescue. The 911 call center notified Drexel Heights at 9:43am. A unit arrived just two minutes later at 9:45. But deputies told rescue workers to stay put. That’s standard to be sure they won’t walk into danger. But they waited until 10:59. Then heard the radio call `Code 900′, that means they were no longer needed because the person was dead. One hour and 14 minutes went by. Drexel Heights indicates they were never allowed to even examine Jose Guereña.”
The home invasion was supposedly intended to enforce a search warrant in a narcotics investigation. Neither Jose nor Vanessa has a criminal history, and no narcotics were found at the home.
TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) – A recording of the 9-1-1 call the morning of Thursday, May 5th showed the confusion and panic of Vanessa Guerena as she tried to get help for her husband Jose Guerena who died after SWAT members shot him while serving a search warrant.
Vanessa Guerena: "Please, I have my husband bleeding... I don't know..."
911: "What happened?"
Vanessa Guerena: "They shoot and I don't know..."
911: "Who shot? Who shot him? Who shot him? I don't.."
Vanessa Guerena: "I don't know, I don't know. I think this is the police. They are outside."
The Pima County Sheriff Department has said that Jose Guerena, a former Marine who served in Iraq, met SWAT members at his door with an assault rifle in his hands that he pointed at officers. They fired 72 rounds at him. The recording shows Vanessa Guerena telling the 911 operator that SWAT had been inside the home.
911: "I need to know who is outside your home. Can you look outside now?"
Vanessa Guerena: "I think it's the SWAT but they're, oh God!"
911: "Can you please open the door for them?"
Vanessa Gurena: "it's open! It's open! They opened it!"
The operator told Guerena that help was on the way. But the situation at the scene kept medics from entering the home.
"Okay, they want you guys to just sit there where you're at, I guess. It's a barricaded subject, so you can just have your engines stay where they're at right now,” the Pima County Sheriff Department operator told the Drexel Heights Fire District dispatcher in another recording.
"Part of what was going on is that this house, the interior of this house is, the walls are somewhat darker color. The roof is painted a very dark color. So when the officers came in, they saw they were confronted with a very dark room. This individual was in a hallway looking right at them, crouched with a weapon. When they saw this and the weapon coming up and he made that statement, some of the officers began to fire that are in this cone -- right at the front door -- began to fire. Some of the officers hit the door frame and there was splintering at the door frame as they were firing. This was falling on some of the other officers. One of the officers has a shield, and when he fired, he starts to fall backwards. Some of the officers thought that officer had been shot, and were starting to drag him out of the fray. So this was a very dynamic scene, a very dangerous situation for the officers that were there, and obviously dangerous for the victim, this individual who was shot, who brought this all on himself by presenting himself the way he did. There is no way around it. We have to serve search warrants. It's a part of our job. We do the best we can of making it apparent that this is what we are doing. But sometimes people have reasons for doing what they do. I can't explain it."
Oh, yeah, the murder victim brought this all on himself. And, sometimes people attempt to defend themselves but Pima County "can't explain" that. What a bizarre thing for a sleeping person awakened by armed prowlers to pick up a gun and think of defending his family. I think that's pretty fucking COMMON in Arizona where everyone has guns. Do they have the castle doctrine?
That interview is a pack of lies and bullshit. The entire lot of them should be in jail on murder charges.
TUCSON, Ariz. — The Pima County Sheriff's Department says it won't be releasing any more information until after the investigation is complete into a fatal SWAT team shooting.
Two weeks after the May 5 incident, the department has yet to disclose exactly what they were searching for.
By the time the victim realizes the intruders are cops, it's too late. The only choice to be safe in the event of an armed invasion by a SWAT team is to give up your right to self defense, or to wait and make sure the intruder is a non-govt employee criminal before you get your gun.
Sure, she'll probably sue but that won't rectify the murder of a husband and father.
Oh, I see, someone points a gun at you and they die, but you break into their home, they have lost their fundamental human right to self defense. Your life matters, theirs doesn't.
Sorry, LC, but that's called a police state and it's an abuse of power. Yes, it's murder, whether you want to admit that some people in your former profession are psychotic thugs or not. Your problem is that you have forgotten, or are too defensive to acknowledge, that cops are human beings and some human beings do evil things.
Like so many other innocent people who have been terrorized by corrupt and out of control LE, the man was murdered and his family's life shattered. You don't seem to give a flying fuck, alright, that much is abundantly clear. Like lots of other civil servants, you seem to have forgotten that people have rights and that thugs need to be held accountable for viscous and violent acts, even when their actions are under color of law. No, ESPECIALLY when under color of law because in addition to the single nightmare perpetrated against this family, there is the violation of the public trust. This is the stuff of the former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, or communist China, not a free country under the Constitution (yeah, I know you find mention of that pompous, too).
The police had a warrant. In order to get a warrant they had probable cause and a third party (impartial judge) had to consent to the legal action based on facts from their investigation. Procedures are followed and video probably exists that will explain more. Please stop making assumptions that are are not supported by evidence. Can you please wait to make your accusations and present them only if and when they can be proved and stop being so suspicious and derogatory of LE. Shitstorm, you seem paranoid and find conspiracy in so many things I doubt what you have to say is accurate or true.
LC, I want to add that I do not hate cops. It bothers me that you have taken this attitude toward me. All people need to be held accountable for their actions, no matter their profession. I highly doubt if I posted some news items of surgeons cutting off the wrong body parts or killing their patients that you would call it "anti doctor rhetoric". You would know that doctors are just people like the rest of us and some are reckless and dangerous. That wouldn't mean that all doctors are bad, which is the position you take about cops when wrongdoing is pointed out. The whole point of having police is to protect the public from criminals, not to terrorize innocent people and then cover up those atrocities. When that happens, and all of the professions do it, it tarnishes the good cops. Can you not see that? I have nothing but respect and admiration for LE who put themselves at risk to serve their fellow citizens. That doesn't mean I have to give a pass to those who are a danger to their community and country.
The police had a warrant. In order to get a warrant they had probable cause and a third party (impartial judge) had to consent to the legal action based on facts from their investigation. Procedures are followed and video probably exists that will explain more. Please stop making assumptions that are are not supported by evidence. Can you please wait to make your accusations and present them only if and when they can be proved and stop being so suspicious and derogatory of LE. Shitstorm, you seem paranoid and find conspiracy in so many things I doubt what you have to say is accurate or true.
Good to know you are privy to the information that Pima County has refused to release.
he was hit 22 times. to quote the great Fla. Sheriff Grady Judd when asked why a guy shot at with 68 rounds by police (he was trying to shoot them) "because we ran out of bullets."
i am not and have never been a knee-jerk defender of bad cops. i have often posted over the years that i despise bad cops. anyone who knows me knows this fact.
again i say let the cop-haters go read my thread "Officer Down" about police who have been MURDERED while trying to do their jobs. last i heard it's not a risk faced and assumed daily by surgeons or accountants.
i hope someday shitstorm NEEDS a cop up in her conspiracy-infested tinfoil tower. to me she is nothing but another robodoom. i'd have some respect if she ever took note of anything other than evil puppy-murdering police officers.
edit to add...and yes. point a gun at me while i am doing my job you are dead. or perhaps i should let you shoot me first? no apologies. POINT A GUN AT A COP YOU DIE. SIMPLE. so that makes us all jackbooted nazi thugs.
(05-18-2011, 07:02 AM)Lady Cop Wrote: Duchess, 70 shots fired does not mean he was hit 70 times.
i am not and have never been a knee-jerk defender of bad cops. i have often posted over the years that i despise bad cops. anyone who knows me knows this fact.
Whenever I make a snarky cop comment it is not directed at you or any of the outstanding police officers out there. I read the officer down thread, I'm aware of the hell they face everyday when only doing their job.
Having said that, I also know there are bad cops out there, cops who take advantage of their authority, I've seen a handful with my own eyes, cops who think they are above the law. I'm smart enough to know not to group all cops together. I wouldn't want their job & I wouldn't want anyone I cared about in that profession.
If that guy only has a few bullets in him out of more than seventy then those cops need some time in at the practice range.
The man shot and killed by Pima County SWAT officers was linked to a home-invasion crew, the attorney representing the officers said Thursday.
Attorney Michael Storie said authorities found rifles, handguns, body armor and a portion of a law-enforcement uniform inside the house where Jose Guerena was shot by officers serving a search warrant May 5.
"Everything they think they're going to find in there they find," Storie said in a news conference called a day after the Sheriff's Department complained that media reports on the incident spread misinformation and encouraged speculation about events surrounding the shooting. The Sheriff's Department said Wednesday that it would provide no details about the case to the public until the investigation is complete.
The search warrant and court documents showing what deputies were looking for and seized from Guerena's home have been sealed by a judge and are unavailable to the public.
Christopher Scileppi, who is representing the Guerena family, said nothing seized from Guerena's home was illegal and that Storie's statements were unsupported by facts and meant to discredit Guerena's character. Scileppi did not comment on the details of the case.
On Thursday afternoon, the Sheriff's Department declined to comment on what the attorneys said.
All statements made by Storie on Thursday morning came from the five SWAT officers he is representing, he said.
The five officers had "no choice but to shoot" when they breached the front door of the house in the 7100 block of South Redwater Drive and saw Guerena holding a rifle, Storie said. The home is on the southwest side, near South Wade and West Los Reales roads.
The house was targeted as part of an investigation into home invasions and drug rip-offs. The Guerena house was among homes that "were identified as locations where these activities were being carried out from."
No arrests have been made from any of the other homes where SWAT served search warrants, Storie said.
According to the SWAT members' statements, all law enforcement vehicles approaching Guerena's home had lights and sirens on and parked in the driveway, Storie said.
Guerena's wife, Vanessa, who was inside the house with their 4-year-old son, has said she did not see or hear lights and sirens and that Guerena thought they were being targeted for a home invasion, which is why her husband grabbed his AR-15 rifle and told her and their son to hide in a closet.
The raid took place about 9:30 a.m., and Guerena, 26, was asleep after working the graveyard shift at Asarco Mission Mine, Guerena's wife said.
Storie said that once the SWAT team parked outside the home, the lights and sirens were turned off. An officer banged on the door for about 45 seconds while identifying the team as police, he said.
After that, five SWAT members broke in the front door and saw Guerena holding a rifle at the end of a long hallway.
One officer began shooting after Guerena placed the rifle in front of him and said: "I've got something for you; I've got something for you guys," Storie said.
The other officers at the front door of the house also fired, striking Guerena.
All five SWAT members were shooting from just outside the home and never entered the house, Storie said.
After Guerena's wife and son came out of the house, officers sent in a robot, and that's when they saw Guerena had been shot and was unresponsive.
When asked why SWAT members did not rush in to render medical aid to Guerena, Storie said officers on scene "have to assume that there are other people with guns and that there are other people with body armor inside the residence."
He said officers could not conclude Guerena was incapacitated because he fell into a room after he was shot and officers could not see him from the doorway.
Based on a photograph of a large bloodstain inside the home, Scileppi said, Guerena fell down in clear view of the front door and officers could see him.
The SWAT officers fired 71 shots, striking Guerena 22 times.
The search warrant was not directed at any particular person, and Guerena's name was not mentioned, but it was targeting whoever might be inside the residence, Storie said.
If SWAT members had been let into the home, those inside "probably ... wouldn't have been arrested," Storie said.
While the SWAT team was at Guerena's home, another SWAT team was serving a search warrant in a nearby home as part of the same investigation, and Storie said a man showed up during the search and said, "You shot my relative."
Storie believes somebody called from inside Guerena's home and alerted family members to the shooting.
Scileppi said he would not comment on those allegations until he "has all the facts."
A portrait of Jesus Malverde, believed to be a "narco saint," was found under Guerena's bed, Storie said. He did not know if drugs were found in the home. Guerena's wife denies having them in her home.
According to Storie, several days before the shooting undercover officers in an unmarked car drove by Guerena's home to do surveillance, and 10 minutes after they drove by, they were alerted that their license plate had been run through the Motor Vehicle Division by someone they say followed the unmarked vehicle from Guerena's home. That was considered countersurveillance on law enforcement, Storie said.
Under the Federal Privacy Act, the MVD in Arizona cannot release information on a license plate to anyone other than to law enforcement.
Scileppi said it took two weeks for "the fourth version of the story" and these details to emerge because "they needed to put a story out that is going to protect them."
"Bottom line is they've had two weeks to construct a story, circle the wagons," Scileppi said.
Scileppi asked Storie and the Sheriff's Department to release more information about the incident. "The family wants to know the truth," he said.
Scileppi has partnered with Patrick Broom for this case. The five officers Storie is representing are from the Sahuarita, Marana and Oro Valley police departments, and two from the Sheriff's Department. The sheriff's SWAT team is made up of officers from different agencies.
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