OFF THE WIRE
Roger Hedgecock
wnd.com
Jose Guerena, a former (2002-2006) U.S. Marine, survived two combat tours in Iraq to return to his native Tucson, Az., to start a family.
On May 5, Jose was shot 60 times and killed in his home in front of his wife and their 4-year-old son by five armed men who broke into his home and only later identified themselves as a sheriffs' SWAT unit serving a warrant for drugs. No drugs were found. The Guerenas had no criminal record.
Around 9 a.m., Vanessa Guerena had seen an armed man pointing his rifle at her through the window of her son's bedroom. She yelled "Don't shoot, I have a baby."
The Guerenas live in a neighborhood known for home invasion. Vanessa yelled to awaken her husband who had just gone to sleep after working a 12-hour night shift at the Asarco copper mine. Startled awake, Jose grabbed his AR-15, told his wife to hide with their son in the closet and ran to confront the men crashing through his front door.
The SWAT team fired 71 shots in seven seconds. Deputies claimed that Guerena had fired first, then retracted that when they admitted that Guerena's rifle was on safety and had not been fired.
Vanessa says she never heard a police siren or any of the intruders identify themselves as police or sheriff. Pima County deputies say they had vehicles on site with sirens and lights on.
Despite Vanessa's pleading, Jose Guerena died in his home as deputies prevented medical help from reaching him for more than an hour after the shooting. The Guerena's other son, a 5 year old, was at school when his dad was killed.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik claims guns, body armor and a picture of Jesus Malvede (the narco "saint") were found under Jose's bed, all said to be evidence of Jose's involvement with a home invasion gang. Sheriff Dupnik now says he is withholding further comment pending conclusion of his criminal investigation.
Dupnik told the Arizona Daily Star, "I have to do what I think is right to protect the case to insure that it has the opportunity to progress where we think it should go." In plain language, the sheriff has a conclusion in mind and is busy fitting the facts to that conclusion. In the meantime, the sheriff will not unseal the search warrant or supporting court documents which would detail what and who the SWAT was searching for.
Clarence Dupnik has come to conclusions before and has not always been so shy about expressing those conclusions. He accused Pima County tea-party protesters of "bigotry" and called S.B. 1070, Arizona's now famous attempt to enforce federal immigration law, "racist" and "disgusting."
A Democrat and Rachel Maddow fan, Dupnick became a national sensation when he linked the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a Tucson shopping mall to Rush Limbaugh, who, he claims, "attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials ... and that kind of behavior is not without consequences."
Here again, the facts did not fit the sheriff's conclusion. It turned out that the shooter, Jared Loughner, did not listen to talk radio, had never listened to Rush Limbaugh and was known to be apolitical. The facts did not deter Obama from praising the sheriff and calling for more civility in our politics, as if "civility," or a lack of it, had shot Rep. Giffords.
Pending investigations in the Guerena case have not stopped the attorney for SWAT from holding a press conference to defend the actions of Dupnik's deputies. Michael Storie says Jose raised his rifle at the officers and said, "I have something for you guys." Vanessa denies that was said.
But attorney Storie also contradicts Sheriff Dupnik, telling reporters that Jose's name was not in the warrant or any of the supporting documents. Storie tells the Arizona Daily Star reporter Fernando Echavarri, "If SWAT members had been let into the home, those inside 'probably they wouldn't have been arrested.'"
And nearly three weeks after the shooting, that's all we know.
What is known nearly everywhere in this country is that our protections provided in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution are disappearing.
The Fourth Amendment declares a "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures" and that this right "shall not be violated, and no Warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause … particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Notwithstanding this plain language, recently the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that a man within his own home could not resist even the unlawful entry of police and could be criminally prosecuted for resisting the unlawful break-in.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (8-1) that the police can break down your door if they smell dope or think those inside may be flushing the evidence. The case involved police serving a warrant at the wrong apartment where the defendant was smoking a joint and watching TV.
If heavily armed government officers can break into Jose's home, shoot him dead and afterward leak certain "evidence" and keep secret the warrant and supporting documentation, the Fourth Amendment is effectively repealed in Dupnik's Pima County.
A free people deserve answers to questions surrounding the death of Jose Guerena. His widow and young sons deserve to know why he died. Shooting first and asking questions later is not the "civility" the Fourth Amendment demands of government agents.
Read more: Iraq vet killed by regime at home http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=302157#ixzz1NE6WS4CF
