Last week, 35-year-old Antonio Zambrano-Montes, a Mexican citizen, was killed by police officers in Pasco, Washington. It was the department’s third fatal shooting since July, in a town of of only 68,000 residents. Video quickly surfaced showing that, at least at the time he was shot, Zambrano-Montes appeared to be surrendering to officers. Allegedly, they fired after responding to a complaint that Zambrano-Montes threw rocks in a busy intersection and was acting erratic.
The Pasco shooting came only a few months after two high profile excessive-use-of-force cases in Ferguson (Michael Brown) and New York (Eric Garner) were dismissed, and only weeks after a another Hispanic person, Jessica Hernandez, was shot and killed by police in Denver. Officers in that case have not been charged, but the department has already lost face by being stingy with the details of the case.
Pasco officials have been more forthcoming with the details of their recent shooting, perhaps in part because the video of the incident is already public. The events preceding the video are still disputed, but key facts in the case are already confirmed. Unlike last year’s police shooting in Ferguson, activists and officials appear to be in agreement over the basic facts of the case, including whether or not Zambrano-Montes was armed, which officers were involved in the shooting, and what training those officers had been given to diffuse similar situations.
1) Antonio Zambrano-Montes Was Unarmed
“What do we know so far? Antonio [...] was not armed with a gun or a knife,” said Kennewick police Sgt. Ken Lattin, spokesperson for the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) involved in the case.
Yet officials have maintained that Zambrano-Montes was “armed with a rock,” and claim that officers sustained injuries from rocks being thrown at them. Relatives of the victim didn’t dispute that fact, but questioned whether his igneous weapon merited a lethal response.
“A rock? It can hurt you, but really?” Zambrano-Montes’ cousin, Blanca Zambrano, said rhetorically in an interview with the Tri-City Herald. "This man, for throwing rocks, gets shot down to death by officers. What kind of name does that give to the Pasco police department?"
2) Officer Flanagan Was Accused Of Racial Profiling & Excessive Force Against A Latina In 2009
The three officers involved in the Zambrano-Montes shooting were Ryan Flanagan, Adam Wright, Adrian Alaniz. It isn’t the first time that Flanagan has been accused of using excessive force against a Hispanic resident of Pasco. In 2009, he was part of a group of officers that wrongly detained a woman in response to an emergency call about a suspicious Latina teenager with blond hair and jean shorts.
The woman detained, 30-year-old Maria Davila-Marquez, sported neither blonde highlights nor jean shorts, according to her attorney, Vito de la Cruz. Matters were complicated by Davila-Marquez’ poor English and the officers’ unwillingness to find an interpreter. Her attorney accused Pasco of racially profiling his client.
“The only commonality was that my client was a woman and a Latina,” de la Cruz told The Seattle Times last Thursday. “I was horrified when I saw that video [of Zambrano-Montes],” said de la Cruz. “But I have to say when I heard that Flanagan was involved, I was not surprised.” Flanagan and his companions didn't just detain her wrongfully, they also detained her roughly.
"Miss Davila was handcuffed and she was thrown on the hood of [Flanagan’s] very hot patrol car and she suffered burns to the left side of her face, bruising to her shoulders from being handcuffed and manhandled," De la Cruz said in a 2012 interview with KEPR-TV. Davila-Marquez filed a lawsuit against the Pasco police, which they settled for $100,000 in damages. When the Latin Times reached out to the Pasco Police Department for comment on the settlement, their spokesman referred to remarks quoted in a 2013 article by the Tri-City Herald.
“I want to be clear — there was no racial profiling involved,” Pasco City Manager Gary Crutchfield said.“We are sorry for the physical pain she suffered. It’s a reasonably fair settlement that recognizes the harm caused by the accident.” The misidentification of Davila was also marked by Crutchfield as a mistake in the heat of the moment. It doesn’t appear that Flanagan was disciplined in the case.
3) Pasco Officers Had Recently Undergone Relevant Training
According to Pasco Police Chief Bob Metzger, most officers on the force are trained in crisis intervention. The training was supposed to prepare officers for situations where subjects are likely to be mentally disturbed or distressed. (Many have assumed that Zambrano-Montes had mental health problems because of his irrational behavior. Family members have claimed that he suffered from mild depression.)
“We just went through that type of training [...] within the last month,” Metzger said, in a press conference last week. On Sunday, local Latino leaders complained that officials had assured them that proper training was in place. In light of the death of Zambrano-Montes, they feel that Metzger’s assessment may have been at best inaccurate and at worst exaggerated.
“What is most tragic is that two weeks before this incident we had met with [Chief Metzger] and [City Manager Dave Zabell]… precisely to talk about ways we could avoid an incident like this,” said Felix Vargas of Consejo Latino, in an interview on Latino Rebels radio. “We were assured by the police chief that all the mechanisms were in place, the protocols were observed--constant training and practice and rehearsals. I’m left aghast that the police chief either did not level with us or [did not] know how low-level a training that his police force had. It’s something that is very very troubling.”
All three officers involved in the shooting are on paid leave during the investigation. Officials have promised a transparent process.
“We’re not going to put something in there to cover up for [the officers],” said Lattin, the SIU spokesman in charge of gathering the facts of the case. As to what would happen if the SIU gathers evidence that portrays the officers in a negative light, he promised that no one would get special treatment.
“Those three officers are going to have to live by their decisions,” Lattin said.
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