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Deputy Shooting Of Man Caught On Tape
A deputy's shooting of a car passenger in Chino was videotaped. The man was wounded while apparently obeying the officer's order to get up.
By Lance Pugmire and Michelle Keller, Times Staff Writers
January 31, 2006
A San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy shot an Air Force security officer late Sunday night after the airman told the deputy that he was in the military and "on your side." A videotape of the incident, which was shot on a residential Chino street about 10:30 p.m., was of poor quality, showing only a silhouette of the deputy and the face of the man who was shot — illuminated by the deputy's flashlight.
But the tape appears to show the deputy opening fire as the man was trying to comply with the officer's apparent order to stand up.
Senior Airman Elio Carrion, 21, had been riding as a passenger in a Corvette that was involved in a brief, high-speed chase with the deputy that reached speeds of 100 mph before the Corvette crashed into a fence, authorities said.
The videotape, shot by Chino resident Jose Luis Valdes, shows Carrion sprawled on the ground and repeatedly telling the deputy, "I'm on your side."
The deputy then seems to shout, "Get up!" after which Carrion appears to lean forward. "I'm going to get up, all right?" he says.
The deputy then fires his gun three or four times from about five feet away. "Shut … up, you don't get up …!" he shouts.
Moaning in pain, Carrion responds: "You told me to get up."
The deputy then radioed in to dispatch that shots had been fired.
It is unclear from the grainy tape whether there was anything in Carrion's movements that provoked the deputy to fire his weapon.
The videotape begins with the deputy already conversing with Carrion, so it is unclear whether the lawman was acting on information he obtained before Valdes began taping.
Sheriff's investigators took the original tape as evidence.
"Our homicide division is conducting a thorough investigation," said Sheriff Gary Penrod. "The investigation will examine all of the evidence. Some of the evidence will include a video that was given to the Sheriff's Department by a citizen."
Penrod said the results of the investigation would be forwarded to the San Bernardino County district attorney's office for review. . .
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Watching the video sickened me. To be clear, this was the passenger in a car that led police on a 100-mph chase. Note I said "passenger." I didn't see the chase.
What I DID see was this guy lying on the ground, talking to the cop. I HEARD him ordered to "get up." I HEARD him say, "I'm getting up." I SAW the cop shoot him three or four times, and HEARD the cop yell at him to "Shut the bleep up" as he lay there moaning.
Now the cop is temporarily off duty, in order give him extra time to come up with a bullshit excuse.
On my local news, there was already a police spokesman attempting to downplay the cop's actions. I would really enjoy hearing anyone, police or otherwise, explain to me how the cop acted reasonably, although you'd have to see the video, which I can't get yet.