Corpus Christi Man Shoots Three SWAT Officers: Not Guilty

Just before 9 a.m. on February 19, 2015, police executed a SWAT no-knock raid on Ray Rosas' home in Corpus Christi, Texas.  They had a warrant to arrest his nephew, and to search for drugs. 

Rosas' had been threatened by gang members for testimony he had given. His house had been subjected to drive by shootings. At the trial, it was disputed if the police shouted "Police!" or if they did so before or after throwing a flash bang grenade through a window into Rosas' bedroom.

Rosas responded to the grenade and the breaking down of his door with gunfire from a Glock .357 Sig with a .40 cal barrel installed.  He fired 15 times and made five hits on three officers, all of whom survived. The hits were to extremities. The most damaging was one shot to the upper leg near the groin. From kristv.com:

Three Corpus Christi Police Department SWAT officers were shot Thursday morning while they attempted to serve a search warrant at a suspected drug house on the 3000 block of Churchill Street.

Police said the officers were trying to make entry to the home when someone started firing a gun at them.

Three officers were hit.

Senior Officer Steven Reubelmann, who has been with the department for six years, was shot twice in the wrist and hand.

Officer Andrew Jordan, a four-year veteran, was shot in the upper leg and forearm.

A bullet also grazed Officer Steven Brown's leg.

Rosas spent nearly two years in jail. Bond was set at $750,000.  The nephew was not present during the raid.  Police found only small amounts of drugs.  In what seems to be a use of targeted administrative vengeance, Code Enforcement was sent to the house. From kristv.com:

Small amounts of cocaine, crack cocaine, prescription medications used for anxiety and pain, and some marijuana were found inside. Officers also seized $600 in cash.

Code Enforcement also had to arrange for the water and gas connections to be terminated. According to police the residents were stealing utilities. AEP disconnected the electrical service as the connection was deemed to be unsafe.

The original subject of the warrant, 30-year-old Santiago Garcia, is facing drug possession charges.

 After 22 months in jail, on 13 December, 2016,  Rosas was acquitted of all charges by a jury of his peers.  An unusual instruction by the Judge about prosecutorial misconduct may have had an effect. From kristv.com:

He told the jury that the prosecution had mishandled 22 items of evidence crucial to the case.

"The state had constantly refused to hand over evidence material to the defense," Judge Williams said.

That is called spoliation of evidence. Under the Michael Morton Act, prosecutors in Texas are required to share all evidence with the defense before a criminal trial starts.

However in Rosas' case, some evidence was not preserved, and other evidence was not handed over in time for trial.

The defense attorneys say this is not the first time this has been a problem with district attorney Mark Skurka. They said the withholding of evidence had occurred in several other cases. The voters fired Skura and voted in a new district attorney, Mark Gonzalez, who will take office 1 January, 2017.

After the trial, the jurors spoke with the defense attorneys.  Here are some of the reasons given for the acquittal.  From mimesislaw.com:

Afterward, the jury talked to the attorneys and the following issues came out:

• The officers were not credible, their stories didn’t match
• The fact that the flash-bang is designed to disorient and distract, which it did
• That there was no video from body cams or vehicles
• That the police did not conduct pre-raid surveillance
• That Rosas was indicted for an assault committed by an officer
• That the officer wasn’t also indicted
• That the prosecutor dismissed half of the charges in the middle of the trial

These sort of cases are happening with greater frequency. The number of "no knock" raids has shot up dramatically. Cases like this fuel the call for reform.

No knock raids should have a very limited role in law enforcement.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

Link to Gun Watch 

TX: Jury Finds Ray Rosas Not Guilty in Shooting of Three Officers

CORPUS CHRISTI -

A Nueces County jury has delivered a not guilty verdict in a case where a man accused of shooting three CCPD SWAT officers.

Ray Rosas was found to be not guilty in a shooting that happened February 19th, 2015. Police were serving a warrant at his home on Churchill Drive when they say he opened fire and shot three officers.

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GA: Nail Salon Employee Wins Gunfight

The suspect was one of two who entered Top Nails Salon in Lithia Springs on Wednesday. According to Channel 2 Action News the two came in and exchanged gunfire with people inside.

One of the armed robbers was shot by an employee and ran into the woodline, Douglasville police said. He was later found by police dogs and taken into custody.
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MD: Man with Rifle Shoots Aggressive Teen Suspect

Around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, police responded to a reported theft from a care at a home in the 100 block of Hazel Avenue. Police learned a 44-year-old man saw someone break into his vehicle, so he confronted the suspect with a rifle in hand. The suspect swung an object, described by police as a knife or screwdriver, at the car owner, who then shot the suspect once in "an upper extremity."
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OH: Robbery Suspect Shot, Killed

Witnesses told police Dozier broke into a home near East 23rd Avenue and Hamilton Avenue at about 6pm on Dec. 5. A 25-year-old man told police he was defending himself and shot the alleged robber. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
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CA: Off Duty Deputy Wounds Aggressive Bear

The family exited their vehicle and were walking up the driveway when they rounded a corner of the home and saw three bears near trash cans. One of the bears began to charge at them, according to the release.

“Fearing for his life, and the lives of his children, the deputy fired several rounds from a handgun toward the bear,” the release stated.
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SC: Homeowner Fights, Shoots, Kills, Burglary Suspect

Deputies said the homeowner told them he returned home to find a man in his home, in possession of his property including several firearms. Investigators said the intruder charged at the victim and a fight ensued before the homeowner shot the suspect.

“Deputies were on the scene in less than two minutes and found a male inside the residence with multiple wounds that were consistent with injuries sustained from gunshots,” Chief Deputy Creed Hashe stated. “The owner of the residence was at the scene and initial information reported to the Sheriff’s Office is that the resident returned to the home and found that it had been burglarized. Once inside, the homeowner encountered a male subject and pursuant to a physical confrontation the homeowner fired several shots at the subject inside the house. “
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KY: Homeowner Fires at Man trying to Kick in Door

Glasgow police arrested a man for an alleged burglary Wednesday shortly after the homeowner reported he had fired multiple shots from a handgun at the intruder.

Alexander D. Cross, 20, of Glasgow was arrested after officers responded to a reported burglary at about 10:17 p.m. at a home off Kirshill Lane. According to a Glasgow Police Department news release, officers were told by the homeowner that a man had attempted to kick-in the front door of his residence, and that the man fled after he fired multiple rounds at the intruder.
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NM: Naked Man attempts Multiple Break-ins, is Shot

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A naked Albuquerque man chose the wrong house to break into.

When a homeowner saw an intruder coming through his bedroom window in the middle of the night, he grabbed his gun from the dresser and started shooting.

“We’re all concerned about you man, that’s all,” said an Albuquerque police officer to Carlos Alberto Juarez in newly released lapel video.

Juarez was naked and bloody in a Northeast Heights neighborhood on November 23, when dispatch received multiple calls about a naked man jumping fences, trying to break into homes.
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Oklahoma Bill to Reduce CCW Permit fees, Eliminate Fingerprint Requirement

Senator Josh Brecheen is pushing for more incremental restoration of Second Amendment rights in Oklahoma. Brecheen is a Second Amendment advocate who sees Oklahoma permit fees as chilling the exercise of the right to keep and bear arms. From kfor.com:

Senator Josh Brecheen wants to reduce the cost of gun licenses from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and possibly eliminate the administrative costs from the local sheriff's office.

"It's an attempt to make sure cost isn't keeping someone from the right to bear arms in accordance to the law," Republican Sen. Josh Brecheen said.

He and the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association are proposing reducing the $100 for a new license, and $85 for a re-licensing fee to $25 a piece.

Brecheen is also considering a rollback of the requirement for fingerprints to obtain the Oklahoma permit. Several states do not require fingerprints. They serve no useful purpose.  They add to the cost and difficulty of obtaining a permit.  It is likely that *is* the purpose of requiring finger prints, to chill the exercise of Second Amendment rights.

 John Lott's research has confirmed the obvious. The higher the costs to obtain a concealed carry permit, the lower the percentage of people who obtain the permit. From crimeresearch.org:

Each $10 increase in fees reduces the percent of adults with permits by about a half a percentage point.

Senator Brecheen has some influence.  He is a member of the Appropriations Committee, and of the Public Safety Committee.  The bill, SB5, has not been processed yet.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
 
Link to Gun Watch 



  

Fictional Character Quoted as Authoritative on Second Amendment

West Wing Character Toby Ziegler

Having observed debates about the Second Amendment for 50 years, it is surprising to find something new. Tosten Burks, writing at good.is, uses a quote from a fictional character as an authoritative source on the Second Amendment. From good.is:

The Constitution’s most controversial amendment reads: “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The NRA has spent much of the past 40 years broadening the interpretation to expand the gun market.

The original intent, however, is best explained by Aaron Sorkin's West Wing character Toby Ziegler, who put it in more liberal terms: “The words ‘regulated’ and ‘militia’ are in the first sentence. I don’t think the framers were thinking of three guys in a Dodge Durango.”

Using a fictional source when there have been volumes of scholarly research written about the subject is rather amusing, especially since the quote is so content free.

Burks deserves some credit. He is writing from Los Angeles, so his environment is decidedly anti-rights. He gets some things horribly wrong.

He states, as a matter of fact, that "stand your ground" was important in the George Zimmerman trial. 

Also known as the “shoot first” law, Stand Your Ground enables the right to use deadly force in self-defense. This was George Zimmerman’s successful argument for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin.

But Zimmerman's defense team never used the "stand your ground" defense, nor was it relevant in the case.

Burks claims that the Kel-Tec PMR-30 is a favorite among concealed carriers. That was a surprise to me.  He also calls the SIG MCX an "assault rifle", but is careful to differentiate the Smith & Wesson M&P-15 as a semi-automatic rifle.

Most of his characterizations of concealed carry, open carry, castle doctrine, and stand your ground laws are adequate.  He does a decent job of directing people to Pink Pistols, The Well Armed Woman, and  The National African American Gun Association.  I suspect he would have included Jews for the Protection of Firearms Ownership if he would have found it on his Internet searches.

I found the article more amusing than discouraging. My impression is that Burks is a well intentioned writer who is severely hampered by his "progressive" information bubble.  The least informed parts of his article are ubiquitous false narratives in his environment.  He has no idea that the "collective right" theory of the Second Amendment was invented by the "progressive" Kansas Supreme Court in 1905, without any precedent being cited. He has no idea the Sig MCX and  S&W M&P-15 rifles, operate pretty much the same way, and are treated the same by most legislative bodies.

It would have been nice if comments were allowed at the site, It appears that Burks can be educated. Unfortunately, there was no provision for commenting.


©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
 
Link to Gun Watch

TN: Close Call with Mistaken Identiy; Wife Grazed by Bullet

When authorities arrived, it was found that the husband had been sleeping in the bedroom and was awakened by his wife who had been downstairs in the kitchen working. When the wife returned to the bedroom the husband was awoken, startled, and accidentally fired his weapon believing she was an intruder.

Fortunately, the bullet grazed the wife's ear and caused no serious injury.
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OK: Domestic Defense? Woman Shoots Man

Officials say it appears a man and woman who lived in the home got into a verbal altercation which eventually became physical.

Agents say the woman shot 40-year-old Richard Lee Bryer, who died at the scene.

Officials say the woman was not arrested.
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NY: Old Man with Gun Beats Young Man with Knife

The two men were inside an apartment on E. 163rd St. in Longwood when a scuffle broke out around 8:50 p.m., according to police.

The unidentified older man suffered a slash wound to his arm before police said he fatally shot the younger man in the head.


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LA: 71-Year-Old Pistol Whipped, wins Gun Fight

A 71-year-old was working inside his shop when a man entered the business and asked to use the restroom, Hines said. When the visitor exited the restroom, he drew a handgun, beat the owner and robbed him of his wallet.

The owner, whose name police have not released, managed to fight off his attacker.

The gunman began firing shots at the owner as he retreated.

The owner got his own gun and shot at the robber, striking him 3 times.

The wounded man ran outside and collapsed in the roadway in front of the business.
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Winning the Gun Culture War, Kansas Man Pushes Back (video)

Link to video

A Kansas member of the gun culture shows how to win the gun culture wars.  A picture of him sitting on his front porch, holding a rifle, was posted on facebook.  The claim was made that he was upset about people parking in front of his house.
Kyle could have assumed a defensive posture by refusing to grant an interview.  That method became the norm as media cut and edited interviews to make gun owners look bad.  Refusing to go on camera used to be the prudent action. Many in the gun culture have had experience with an untrustworthy media. The Katie Couric lawsuit comes to mind. That may still be the case in anti-rights locations like NYC, or with media based there.

Progress in the culture wars has reached the point that a confident and articulate speaker can push back against the anti-rights narrative. A hoplophobic mother is quoted, but Kyle comes off as normal, level headed, and positive.  From kwch.com:

The picture spread on social media, claiming the man had a problem with people parking by his driveway. But that man, who only wants to be identified as Kyle, said that’s not entirely true. He said parking is a problem in this neighborhood at times, but that’s not the reason he had his gun.

“Didn’t feel like I was bothering anybody,” Kyle said. “I am a hunter, I do like to hunt and I just wanted to sit on my front porch with my gun, I didn’t think that was a big deal.”

But Kyle said he’s had two people confront him, threatening him because he had a firearm.

“He said if I didn’t have that gun I’d cut you up real good,” Kyle said remembering something a man outside his house said to him this week.

Kyle said he’s just exercising his second amendment rights and is always responsible with guns. But parents said it still makes them uneasy with it being so close to a school.

My experience is that local media is mostly honest. Do not give them ammunition. Dress reasonably, be soft spoken, act reasonably, and act knowing that exercising your rights is a positive, responsible thing to do.

Kyle set a good example with his media demeanor.  The entire event was capped with the last two sentences of the kwch.com video and article:

Officials with the Wichita School District said they are aware of the situation and parent’s concerns, however, they have no reports of the man pointing the gun at anyone or making any threats. They also spoke with police who confirm the man has the right to carry the gun openly.

The old adage bears repeating. Rights are like muscles. If you do not exercise them, you tend to lose them.

A hoplophobe tried to shame Kyle into refusing to exercise his rights. He did not cooperate, and they appeared small and petty. The gun culture is winning the war.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

Link to Gun Watch

AR: Pizza Delivery Driver fires .40 cal to Escape Attack

JONESBORO, AR (KAIT) -

Three men who robbed a pizza delivery driver got the pies, but no dough after the victim pulled out a gun and opened fire.

Around 9:30 Sunday night a Domino’s driver delivered three large pizzas and 14 chicken wings to a home in the 3700-block of Marchbanks Cove.

The driver told police three African-American men met him on the driveway and confirmed they had placed the order.

As the driver handed over the order, he said one of the men began hitting him in the face.

The 26-year-old man said he tried to run away, but the man chased him across the street and continued to attack him after he fell.

The driver said he then pulled a .40 caliber handgun from his jacket and fired one shot at his alleged attacker.

He was not sure if the bullet hit the man.
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FL: Boyfriend Shoots Burglary Suspect

MIAMI (WSVN) - A homeowner turned the tables on the man who was trying to break into his Miami home when, police said, he shot the intruder, sending him to the hospital, Tuesday morning.

Miami Police said the invasion attempt happened at 6:30 a.m., in the area of Buena Vista East, near Northeast 42nd Street off North Miami Avenue.

“The City of Miami received a call from a female saying that there was an attempted burglary at her home and that her boyfriend had apparently shot the offender,” said Miami Police Officer Yelitza Cedano.

Investigators said the perpetrator had a pair of bolt cutters and was trying to break into the residence. “They were asleep, and they were woken by the alarm,” said Cedano. “Apparently, the alarm went off once. They thought it was something routine.”
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PA: Friend of Victim Shoots at Suspect

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police say a man was shot in the face by a robbery suspect outside a strip club, but the suspect was then also shot at by the victim's friend.

Police are still searching for the suspect who shot the victim as he and his friend left Jungle Gentleman's Club about 4 a.m. Tuesday.

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TX: Homeowner shoots at Suspect, 1 taken to Hospital

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - A homeowner opened fire at a suspected thief Monday in northwest Harris County, deputies said.

It is unclear if the shooting at the home in the 6700 block of Vickie Springs was sparked by a possible carjacking or a home invasion.
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