Posted on 01/13/2005 1:04:11 PM PST by GodfearingTexan
This is some messed up ****. Click on URL for story.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
Deaths create tension
Police shootings by Marine who was later killed stir up emotions at Ceres High
By JULISSA McKINNON
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: January 13, 2005, 06:13:45 AM PST
CERES — Shattered glass was replaced Wednesday at a tire shop next to George's Liquors, where two police veterans were gunned down Sunday night.
But other havoc wreaked by a 19-year-old Marine's shooting rampage is proving much harder to repair.
According to several Ceres High School students, a rift has formed between students sympathizing with the fallen police officers and those who had close ties with Andres Raya, the Ceres High graduate who attacked the officers and was later shot dead by police.
The high school hallways and lunchroom courtyard have become an echo chamber for student opinion, mostly from those criticizing Raya, according to Christina Ortega, 18.
"There is a lot of tension between the officers' supporters and Andy's friends," she said. "It's sad. They both lost lives and should be coming together."
Instead, she said, some people take sides. "You hear it around the hallways, 'Andy should have shot himself.'"
"Andy's friends have been keeping it low. I guess their way to express themselves is on the street," Ortega said while watching some of them do just that.
After school Wednesday, more than 20 young people, including some Ceres High students, gathered across from the school around Esteban Diaz, 20, who hoisted a cardboard sign reading "RIP Raya" in large, white spray-painted letters.
As traffic passed, some drivers honked, some gawked, others accelerated past the group.
Ceres Unified School District Superintendent Walt Hanline expressed outrage that Diaz, one of Raya's friends who returned recently to Modesto from Arizona, chose to stage his impromptu gathering across from the high school.
"Not across from the high school where young people who are 14, 15, 16 are grieving the loss of a friend, or the loss of a father," Hanline said.
Students related to officers
Some students at Ceres High are related to Sgt. Howard "Howie" Stevenson, who was killed by Raya. Others are related to officer Sam Ryno, who remained in serious condition Wednesday at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto with gunshot wounds to his lower back and legs.
"Across from the school is not the place for a 20-year-old man to be inciting our students," Hanline said. "If he feels hostile with the police, he should go stand outside the Police Department. If he's emotionally upset, he should go to church. Don't make our school a battleground."
The group later followed the sign-carrying Diaz to the place where Raya died — an alley a few blocks away.
There, Diaz and Laylow Medina, 17, lit small white candles in Raya's memory. Medina pointed to a red spot in the green grass — a spot that he thought was blood. The young men stared at the ground in silence.
"He was fighting for people to put gas in their cars," said Medina as he pulled his hood around his head.
Medina complained that candles, U.S. flags and a cross they placed there Monday had vanished.
He and others insisted that Raya has been mistakenly portrayed by the police and the media as a gang member.
He wasn't in a gang, friend says
Michael Martinez, a 17-year-old Argus High School student, said Raya knew people with gang ties from his neighborhood. Sometimes he hung out with them, but he wasn't a gang member, he said. Raya had tattoos, Martinez said, but they were nongang tattoos — a sun on one shoulder, a moon on the other.
Diaz recalled his final conversation with Raya on New Year's Eve.
"He said, 'I don't wanna go back.' That's the only Christmas present he wanted was to not go back," Diaz said. "He never liked talking about it (Iraq). He told people they wouldn't understand."
Meanwhile, on the other side of a fence, a green cardboard sign hung in a resident's window thanking police who hunted down Raya, who was hiding in back yards.
Candy Garcia, who made the sign, said about 10 SWAT team members evacuated her family just minutes before a shootout erupted between police and Raya behind her house.
Garcia, 38, said she's relieved her four children, traumatized by sounds of gunfire and circling helicopters, didn't also have to witness Raya's end.
All her children, ages 2 to 15, have slept in their parents' bedroom since Sunday. All of them except the toddler are spooked by the slightest unexpected noise, she said. Her 13-year-old daughter is having trouble concentrating in school.
"And my 5-year-old still thinks there was a war in our back yard," Garcia said
8:18 — Officers from around the region respond to the "officer down" call, and cordon off the neighborhood as they search for the gunman.
About 10 p.m. — Police evacuate residents from several homes around a house where officers believe Raya may be holed up. Police shoot out streetlights to obscure the suspect's vision.
11:08 — Four officers see Raya climb over a fence, entering an alley between Glenwood and Myrtlewood drives. He fires on them, and they return fire, striking him. He drops his rifle, but remains standing. He reaches under his poncho and officers fire again, killing him.
it supposedly happened two days ago, and i just now heard of it. im surprised as hell at that.
Wow, that's nuts, and sad. WTF.
Couldn't he just have claimed to be a concientous objector and refused to go back?
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