A lengthy and telling raw video from Tucson’s KGUN 9 TV station presents the official view from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department regarding the brutal home slaying of US Marine Jose Guerena on May 5.
Former US Marine José Guerena, killed in his Tucson home by the SWAT team
Guerena was shot at 71 times by a SWAT team. 60 of the bullets struck Guerena’s body, as his wife frantically called 911 for medical care. Reports from Mexican TV claim that Guarena was mistakenly identified as a terrorist, although, according to Pima County Department Lt. Michael O’Connor, Guerena was suspected of being part of a narcotics conspiracy. The Huffington Post reported that the shooting was a result of a “botched pot raid.”
O’Connor, who was interviewed at length, at one point called the tragedy “a dynamic scene.”
Here are three video segments that reveal what O’Connot said to KGUN:
Segment 1
Segment 2
Segment 3
Here is one excerpt from the WGUN video:
O’Connor: “This case involves a narcotics conspiracy case, which means that we are looking for a lot of different narcotics related material. That can be drug ledgers, scales, anything that would be in furtherance of this narcotics conspiracy. And it involved all four residents that we were looking at in that quarter mile of so of each other.”
O’Connor: “We did find things that we were asking for in that. It may have been drug ledgers, narcotics paraphernalia, any other connecting material between the residences. Those things were found, in addition to a large sum of money. Somewhat larger that what you would expect to find in anyone’s home.”
WGUN: “Can you say if that was the residence where the shooting happened?”
O’Connor: “No, it was one of the four, but it was not that residence.”
WGUN: “In that specific residence, did you find anything related to drugs, drug money, in that specific residence.”
O’Connor: “We found information that was pertinent to this drug conspiracy case, yes. I’m not going to go into details on what those things were. But it was connecting material to the drug conspiracy.”
Here is another excerpt:
WGUN: “So it’s your, it’s the Pima County Sheriff’s Department position, that this individual who was shot and killed was well aware of who he was targeting?”
O’Connor: “Well, I’m not going to begin to think what was going through his mind. What I can tell you is what precipitated this. And that was, law enforcement in uniform responding to the scene in marked police cars, with marked police cars not only with their lights going, but also with their sirens going. And then not just one, but several of those. So I can’t explain what was going through his mind when this happened. What I can tell you is what we did to make this as safe a situation as we could.”
O’Connor: “It appears that it was 71 rounds were fired.”
WGUN: “Someone on the street might perceive that as excessive force. In your opinion as a law enforcement officer, was it?”
O’Connor: “No, it’s not, for a couple of reasons. One, this was an operation being conducted by SWAT members. They have special weapons when they’re doing this. Also, where this occurred: There were five officers at the door beginning to make entry into this home, when they engaged this individual that they believed was actually firing at them. They’re going to fire until that threat is no longer. And in this case, they fired those rounds in approximately seven seconds. So, it may sound like it’s a high number. But when you have five officers firing semi-automatic weapons, that can be done in less than seven seconds, and that’s what happened in this case.”
O’Connor: “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.”
O’Connor: “The neighbors have been interviewed…. They said that the lights and sirens were on. Were they actually on? Did the neighbors hear that? This has been consistent. The neighbors said they heard the officers yelling, screaming, ‘Police! Sheriff’s Department!’ Lights sirens… We’ll take this case to the County Attorney’s office.”
O’Connor: “We thought that the wife was going to be gone with the two children to school. As it turns out, only one went to school, and the other one was still in the house with the mother. That’s something we try to anticipate, we try to make it as safe as possible. In this case, she was still there.”
Lt. O’Connor goes to great lengths in revealing the presence of “narcotics paraphernalia” in one of the homes that was raided. However, when it comes to the home of Jose Guerena, O’Connor suddenly finds that topic is too sensitive to provide specific details.
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Verbatim:
WGUN: [Asking about the home of Jose Guerena] “In that specific residence, did you find anything related to drugs, drug money, in that specific residence.”
O’Connor: “We found information that was pertinent to this drug conspiracy case, yes. I’m not going to go into details on what those things were. But it was connecting material to the drug conspiracy.”
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This smoke screen is pure innuendo and character assassination. Michael Storie, lawyer for AZCOPS already admitted that no one in Jose Guerena’s house would have been arrested based on the evidence found in his home.
And when does pot become a narcotic? This stinks and HAS to be exposed.
Mr O’Connor is full of excuses and convienent justifications for this raid gone wrong. If evidence linking this young vetran is available , then why is it being conceeled?? Answer that for the public. If the SWAT officers (5total) discharges 71 rounds with a ( semi-automatic weapon ) in 7 seconds then they must depress the trigger 12 times each in a 7 second period ( 2 rounds per second ). That is quite a cooincidence that all team members pulled the trigger simultainiously 12 times ! Thats extermely fast trigger pulling even for a trained soldier(2 per second). Whats the odds they all did the same thing ????? This 7 second statement is highly questionable and the fact that this supposed suspect did not fire on the officers is obvious that he was frieghtened but did not retaliate. This goes to show that the Marine was capable of identifying the threat and make a quick judgement call not to fire, but the trained SWAT team did not! THIS SCENERIO STINKS OF LIES,DECEIT AND UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR THAT KILLED A VETRAN AMERIVAN MARINE!!!!! Justice must be served.
We think so. The video is quite laughable in our opinion.
I am absolutely enraged by their (Pima SWAT) actions and stonewalling for several reasons. It is obvious this was an over reaction and the officers involved deliberately denied Guerena medical attention. As a former US Marine I am particularly disturbed by the violent force used against this combat veteran.
In the 1990s I served as Communications Director to Congressman Bob Barr GA7 during the Ruby Ridge and Waco investigations. As the Congressman’s evidence filter I learned of the governments appalling and brutal tactics against civilians and the government’s apparently successful efforts to conceal the truth. I fear the same is being done here.
The wall between citizen and law enforcement has been growing higher and wider for at least two decades now. The police now employ specialized military weapons and tactics. More and more agencies have obtained police powers and a desire to use them. Seemingly benign agencies such as State Agriculture Commissions are riding around in SUVs with blue strobe bars driven by armed “officers” equipped like a DEA agent on a drug raid. We are already a police state and growing more restrictive.
I pray that, unlike FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi, these officers will face criminal prosecution and the citizens of Pima County will remove Sheriff Dupnik from office.
I strongly urge Governor Brewer to order a state level investigation into what is obviously an over reaction by Pima County law enforcement.
Thank you SO MUCH for this. How can we help you?
During my military career, I was tasked with trying to train civilian cops in basic military techniques such as forced entry. What I saw disgusted me. With exception of one federal agency, the people the cops sent us were a bunch of hotshot macho boys who couldn’t shoot and were essentially un-trainable.
They were all overweight, poorly trained in even the basics of weapons handling and mostly interested in dressing up in commando outfits and impressing their girlfriends. (Did anyone notice that silly do-rag under the helmet of the driver at the beginning of the video? What did he think he was doing? Going on a ten-day recon patrol?) They didn’t like to get hot, miss a meal, be criticized or work overtime to sharpen their skills. My soldiers routinely trained 12 hours a day as the norm, longer when indicated, with no complaints. Those chubby cops just couldn’t handle that.
This video does not show a “dynamic situation.” It shows a herd of freaked-out antelope stuck trying to cross a fence. I could go on for an hour explaining all the rules they violated and the stupid stuff they did, but suffice it to say that if I lived in Pima County, the LAST people I would call for help is this bunch.
I have never seen a house clearing that required force to take more than five or so shots to settle, even with multiple targets.
70 rounds fired is criminal negligence. To engage a target (for your own safety) you fire AIMED shots at the threat. You cannot possibly identify aim and engage with 70 shots unless you are just firing blindly in some general direction.
The people of Pima County need to find a new Sheriff and a new Sheriff’s department. The people you have now are more of a threat to you than to the bad guys.
Excellent observations and comments.
If you look at the exit holes in the backside of the house, they had shots bounce off the ceiling while shooting at an allegedly “crouching” target. This to me screams criminal negligence on the part of the SWAT team, because who knows who was on the other side of the house? From the exit holes it looked like they were shooting FMJ too. They supposedly had breachers on the back door as well, but they didn’t have time to secure the scene before the attack, so who knows who they could have killed with 70 blind-fired rounds penetrating those obviously thin walls and going into other nearby residences?
There are already laws to handle this situation – those Pima County SWAT guys are murderers and they should be charged in EXACTLY the same way as any other perpetrator would be charged when killing a person with a firearm, including all of the associated criminal negligence charges associated with putting other civilians in danger.
After the cops in NYC shot 8 people with blind-fire a couple of weeks ago, i think it’s seriously time to start considering disarming the police. It’s inappropriate for local police agencies to have military level hardware, as they obviously can’t handle it. I feel much safer knowing that civilian concealed carry license holders may be around than trigger happy cops… it’s time to switch things around and give the cops 6-shot revolvers and give citizens the AR-15s after a background check. Guaranteed there are less accidental deaths.