Posted on 07/17/2013 1:28:53 PM PDT by Altariel
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CN) - A police officer for a Texas school district may have used excessive force in fatally shooting a teenager who fled the scene of a fistfight, a federal judge ruled.
Denys Lopez Moreno sued Officer Daniel Alvarado, Police Chief John Page and the Northisde Independent School District in September 2011 for the death of her 14-year-old son, Derek Lopez.
The incident unfolded on Nov. 12, 2010, when Lopez allegedly exited a school bus and, in view of Alvardo, punched another student.
Lopez ignored Alvarado's order to freeze and fled the scene with the school officer tailing him in a patrol car, according to the amended complaint.
With Lopez hiding in a shed at a nearby home, Alvarado drove back to the scene of the fight but allegedly refused to give up the search.
"Ignoring his supervisor's orders to 'stay with the victim and get the information from him,' Alvarado placed the second boy into the patrol car and sped into the neighborhood to search for Derek," the complaint states.
Local homeowners then directed Alvarado to the shed, Moreno claimed.
"In violation of NISD police department procedures, Alvarado drew his weapon immediately after exiting the patrol car," the complaint states. "With his gun drawn, he rushed through the gate and into the back yard. Within seconds from arriving at the residence, Alvarado shot and killed the unarmed boy hiding in the shed."
Moreno said the officer had a history of disregarding orders.
"In approximately a four (4) year period leading up to the shooting, defendant Alvarado had been reprimanded sixteen (16) times," according to the complaint. "Specifically, he had been reprimanded for insubordination and failure to follow supervisors' directives seven (7) times. Due to his poor service record, Alvarado was suspended without pay on five (5) occasions. On May 21, 2008, Alvarado was recommended for termination by Page. Despite being recommended for termination for insubordination and for refusal to follow supervisor directives, Alvarado remained on the force without remedial training."
U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez granted the school district and Page summary judgment on Friday, but he refused to dismiss the claims of excessive force and negligence against Alvarado.
"In this case Alvarado testified that he saw an individual (later identified as Derek) strike another (later identified as Chris Avilez) about three times at a bus stop," the order states (parentheses and brackets in original). "He testified that he thought a misdemeanor assault had taken place. He placed the victim in his patrol car. A fact issue exists as to whether Alvarado was able to determine Derek's age and the age of the victim, while that person was in his patrol car. When Alvarado arrived at the house where the shed was located, Alvarado testified that Derek posed no threat to the homeowner; that if he thought Derek was violent it would have been prudent for him to wait for backup; that at the moment he unholstered his weapon Derek posed no threat to him; and he drew his weapon because he thought that Derek could pose a threat by using some object in the shed as a weapon. Alvarado testified that at no time did he see Derek with any gun or knife. Alvarado further testified that after the shed door hit his face, he 'felt that [Derek] was coming after me, so I - I took the shot.' Alvarado never saw Derek grab for any weapon.
"An officer cannot use deadly force without an immediate serious threat to himself or others. Here, genuine issues of material fact exist as to whether there was such an immediate threat."
Northside ISD is the fourth largest district in Texas and encompasses the northwest section of San Antonio, according to its website.
The school district attracted national attention last year when a father challenged its program for tracking students with chip-embedded identification badges. The San Antonio Express-News reported on Monday that the district has ditched the program.
It is just White-H on White-H violins, no one cares anymore......
This is exactly why insurance companies will not write policies for school districts that arm teachers.
Moreno said the officer had a history of disregarding orders.
Hoo Boy! Talk about Trayvonning the story.
I'm familiar with this story. I probably FReeped it when it happened several years ago. IIRC, the cop was cleared. But now it looks like the parents are going to $ue for civil damages.
Same as the Martin family is going to do now.
Sixteen reprimands and five suspensions in four years?
Maybe they should have figured something like this would happen.
That cop should know that if he wants to kill someone with impunity the guy needs to be white, in bed in his home, and at an address other than the one on the warrant that the judge hasn’t seen or signed yet.
The delinquent yoot bites the dust and the unstable cop gets the time (hopefully) and loses everything. I can see happy ending...
I am missing the connection. The guy was a police officer, not a teacher.
We have way to many armed “police” forces running around in the USA. And with that proliferation we have more “marginal” police officers.
Given that they kept this guy on the payroll, one could argue they were encouraging it.
All the better to train school children to act like inmates without rights, instead of future citizens of a free nation.
Public schools aren’t becoming more like prisons by accident.
Actually, they do.
The one that made the news a couple of weeks ago begged for its contract back when a couple other companies made offers, but they didn't get it back.
Right, but I could certainly see an idiot teacher losing his cool and doing something like what that idiot cop did. And since a teacher would certainly have less training than a cop, the liability would, if anything, be greater.
A slick lawyer would just have to make this argument: "A police officer receives many hours of weapons training. But the school district gave that teacher a gun with only a few hours of training. The district was therefore reckless."
I'm not saying that armed teachers shouldn't be a "last resort" in a school invasion. Things can't stay the way they are now.
What I am saying is that I don't blame insurance companies for not wanting to get involved.
Less training at what, guns, losing his cool?
Ok, now that cop should have been fired a LONG time ago and the family of that boy are going to get paid money they would probably rather not have, considering the circumstances.
“A police officer for a Texas school district “
Sounds like Sanford, where the school system has THEIR OWN police.
The LEO thought it was a dog.
You forgot about the dog...
Example of a dumb argument. You can train some people for a lifetime and they still won't get it right. You can't fix stupid.
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