Archive for May, 2011

The classic scenario for a SWAT callout is a barricaded hostage taker, a situation that commonly ends with a negotiator talking the suspect or suspects out without bloodshed, or more rarely, with a single shot from a sniper’s rifle. More rare still is an assault by SWAT operators. This is rare because no matter how much SWAT types love to do this sort of thing, it is horrendously dangerous to everyone involved. SWAT teams are also commonly employed for the service of no-knock warrants, where absolute surprise, speed, and overwhelming action are a necessity to minimize danger and prevent the destruction of evidence.

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) – The family of former marine Jose Guerena are still wondering why it happened. They marched side by side with the oath keepers, a group dedicated to protect the constitution and the rights it gives. Founder Stewart Rhodes tells 9OYS this incident with SWAT crossed the line.

“All you know is you got yelling men entering your home with guns in their hands, how are you going to react? it puts them in a no win situation,” Rhodes said.

The sheriff’s department video was released after the oath keepers planned their march so we asked if these pictures changed what they thought.

TUCSON – Hundreds gathered in Pima County Monday for a fallen Marine, but this was no typical Memorial Day ceremony.

A group called Oath Keepers organized a march and protest for Jose Guerena.

Guerena was killed by a Pima County SWAT team on May 5th. They entered his home with a search warrant, but deputies said when they went in, Guerena aimed an assault rifle at them. They fired 71 rounds and killed him.

More than a hundred people took part in the march, some of which came from as far away as Vegas. The people said they were there for a number of reasons: pay tribute to a fallen marine, support the victim’s family, and protest the tactics of the SWAT team.

Ed Vallejo of Phoenix captured this interview at the Memorial Day event in Tucson.

___

Oath Keepers had 2 cameras covering the event so there is a bunch of footage. We will be putting it all together and will be posting some as early as tonight. For now enjoy this little piece of what went on.

First reports on afternoon of Memorial Day, May 30, 2011, indicate that all is going well with the Oath Keepers muster in Tucson.
As they come in, we’ll choose some pics to add here.

“God bless Jose Guerena, and especially his wife Vanessa and children who will have to try to get through this horrible tragedy without him.”

The Arizona Libertarian Party is Arizona’s, and the nation’s, third largest political party. Libertarians believe in self ownership, personal responsibility, the ‘golden rule’, strong defense, and non-initiation of force.

All marchers will muster by 8:00 a.m. sharp. Oath Keepers is asking all who can to please bring a rose for Vanessa Guerena. Oath Keepers is asking all marchers to leave any signs in their cars, as this march is not a political march, but a memorial march. All marchers are encouraged to wear their Oath Keepers gear, shirts/hats/pins/patches etc. All marchers who do not have Oath Keepers gear are asked to, if possible, wear something appropriate for patriotic emotions, such as American flag –styled shirts, veterans gear, etc. Marchers may carry flags.

I have spent 22 years as a cop, more than eleven of those as a SWAT senior operator and assault team leader. I am concerned about the totality and overtone of recent articles concerning SWAT teams in general. I do not have all the details of the unfortunate Tucson deadly force incident, but having been in deadly force incidents myself, I will never second guess the thoughts and actions of those involved. As you likely know, life and death decisions are made in parts of seconds… – Craig Meyer

As you may know, on May 5, 2011, a young 26 year old Marine veteran who had survived two tours in Iraq, and father of two, Jose Guereña, was killed in a SWAT raid in Tucson, Arizona (see below news articles for details). At approximately 9:30 am, two hours after he hit the rack after working a twelve hour graveyard shift at an Arizona mine, his wife woke him by yelling that there were men with guns outside (she had seen a man outside the window pointing a gun at her). He told her to take their four year old son and hide in a closet, grabbed his AR-15, and stepped out into the hallway of his home just as his front door was battered in.

He died with his safety still on. He didn’t fire a shot. The Pima County, Arizona (Sheriff Dupnik’s department), SWAT Team fired 71 rounds at him, hitting him with approximately 60 rounds. He had no criminal record. The only justification given by the Sheriff’s spokesman for using SWAT to serve the warrant was that it was a search warrant in a narcotics conspiracy investigation (with three other homes searched in the same neighborhood), and that this is their policy when the home-owner may be armed

Late Thursday afternoon the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, responding to public records requests, released video and documents related to the shooting of Jose Guerena. Guerena died on May 5 when a SWAT team arrived at his Pima County home to serve a search warrant. The SWAT team’s attorney has said that when the team broke down the door, they saw Guerena standing there with a rifle and that he said, “I’ve got something for you.” The team then opened fire, expending 71 rounds and hitting Guerena 60 times.

Guerena’s wife Vanessa told KGUN9 News that she and her husband never knew the men breaking into her home were SWAT officers. SWAT attorney Mike Storie has said that the team came in with sirens blaring and properly identified themselves.

Be it resolved: The Oath Keepers of Pahrump Nevada do hereby stand united against illegal Government actions in violation of the Constitution of the United States of America and that the Sheriff of Nye County Nevada, Tony DeMeo, is urged to not use the force of SWAT in search warrants on people with no criminal or violent records, trained American gun owners, Veterans, former Police Officers or other Constitutionally armed citizens unless there is sufficient cause to believe the lives of Officers or others may be in jeopardy.

Oath Keepers will muster at 8:00 a.m. on the morning of Memorial Day, May 30, 2011, and will march at 8:30 a.m. to the home of Vanessa Guerena, the widow of Jose Guerena. Oath Keepers will conduct a brief ceremony on the lawn outside Mrs. Guerena’s house and extend our sympathies to Mrs. Guerena.

[In 2006] the Supreme Court ruled in its 5-4 decision in the case of Hudson v. Michigan that when police conduct an illegal, no-knock raid, any evidence they seize in the raid can still be used against the suspect at trial, even though the raid was conducted illegally.

I’ve spent the last year researching these types of volatile, highly-confrontational, paramilitary raids for a forthcoming report for the Cato Institute. The decision in Hudson is almost certain to lead to more illegal no-knock raids, more mistaken raids on innocent people, and more unnecessary deaths, both of civilians and of police officers.

As a former Marine and a currently serving Police Officer, I was saddened, shocked, and angered when I learned of what happened to one of my Marine Brothers, Jose Guereña.

As I understand it, the Pima County SWAT Team fired 71 rounds, hitting Jose Guereña with approximately 60 of those rounds, then refused to allow Medical personnel to attend to him, while he bled to death on the floor of his home.

I understand it to be that Guereña’s weapon was still on safe and had not been fired. I understand it to be that Guereña’s wife had told him that she had seen a man with a gun outside their window, and that Guereña was not aware that those who were storming into his home were Police Officers.

As a former Marine, and as a Police Officer, I firmly believe that, I too, would have taken an armed, defensive position just as Guereña did. It appears to me that Guereña, while trying to ascertain whether those entering his home were “friendlies”, left his safety on until he had made that judgment.

My questions are these:

What probable cause was shown to the Judge who granted the Search Warrant for Guereña’s home?

Those of us who are trained know and understand that the only way your family is going to be safe from a criminal home invasion is if you step up and defend them, but if you do that, if you dare to arm yourself and defend your family against home invasion, if it turns out to be the police conducting a dynamic SWAT raid, you will be at risk of being shot on sight every time. You will die for simply defending your family.

And that’s the problem with this policy of using a SWAT team just to serve a search warrant.

The Indiana Supreme Court has stated the following:

“We hold that there is no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers.”