Posted on 10/04/2009 3:55:15 PM PDT by Marechal
PHOENIX (CN) - A homeowner says a Phoenix police officer shot him six times in the back during a 911 home-invasion call, and the 911 tape recorded the officer's partner saying, "That's all right. Don't worry about it. I got your back. ... We clear?" The family says the officers were not aware that the 911 call was still recording as they spoke about covering up the shooting. In their complaint in Maricopa County Court, Anthony and Lesley Arambula say an armed intruder "crashed through the front window" of their home on Sept. 17, 2008 and ran into one of their son's bedrooms. Anthony, worried about his son who was still in his bedroom, says he "held the intruder calmly at gunpoint" and called 911. Phoenix Police officers already in the neighborhood heard the crash of the Arambulas' window. When they approached the house, Lesley says, she told Sgt. Sean Coutts that her husband was inside holding the intruder at gunpoint. Lesley says Coutts failed to pass on that information to the two other officers. Inside the house, the Arambulas say, Officer Brian Lilly shot Anthony six times in the back while he was still on the phone with the 911 operator - twice when he was on the ground. The officers ran into the bedroom after Anthony told them, "You just killed ... you just killed the homeowner. The bad guy is in there." The complaint states that Officer Lilly "admitted that it was only after Tony was laying, bullet-ridden, on the ground that he assessed the situation. The 911 tape continued to record what happened even after Officer Lilly unloaded his weapon into Tony, including Officer Lilly's post-shooting, one-word 'assessment': 'Fuck.' "Tony believed he was going to die; the 911 tape records his plaintive goodbye to his family: '... I love you ... I love you.' Then Tony made what he believed was a dying request to the officers; he did not want his young family to see him shot and bloodied. Officers callously ignored his request and painfully dragged Tony by his injured leg, through the home and out to his backyard patio, where they left him bloodied and shot right in front of Lesley, Matthew and Zachary." The Arambulas say the officers later dragged Anthony onto gravel, then put him on top of the hot hood of a squad car, and "drove the squad car down the street with Tony lying on top, writing in pain." According to the complaint, Lilly can be heard on the 911 tape telling Coutts, "We fucked up."
The Arambulas seek punitive damages for gross negligence, civil rights violations, failure to supervise, excessive force, deliberate indifference to medical needs, false arrest, and emotional distress. They are represented by Michael Manning with son Morrison Hecker.
Wow. Phoenix must be quite a place.
Speechless....
This is worth several million dollars at least....
Police more and more act as if their union contract specifies that if they go on a call they get to shoot someone. Everyone who legally can should own a couple of dogs so that the police can have them to shoot when they come to your door for some reason.
Poor training, poor discipline, bad leadership, inevitable result. Too many cops out there need to quit watching DVD’s and start learning how to behave in a professional and lawful manner. This sounds like a criminal indictment is in order.
Nothing will be done nor can it e. Just a few months or weeks ago a police officer ran into the back of a car and then called for back up. He left his camera on and his recorder so it was known that they were going to say the female driver was the cause and was DUI when in face she was not and was run over by the police officer. Never did anything about it so one must understand that there is no way that they can or will be held accountable for violation of the law.
there is always two sides to every story
The thugs are in Jail for Attempted Murder right?? and Conspiracy, Felony Obstruction, using a firearm during the commission of a Felony, The mere fact that they tried to cover it up and were recorded doing just that, should make them eligible for the DEATH PENALTY. That is if we truly had a Justice System instead of a Legal one.
Around here I pretty sure it’s illegal to drive through town with something you shot on the hood of your squadcar.
Anybody shoots me six times I doubt I'd be writing.
The Arambulas say the officers later dragged Anthony onto gravel, then put him on top of the hot hood of a squad car, and “drove the squad car down the street with Tony lying on top, writing in pain.”
They put a guy who had been shot six times on the hood of a car and then drove down the street?????
So, what happened to the intruder?
These clowns for cops were simply covering their ass and trying to get the homeowner ‘bleed-out’. This is a well known term in LE circles.
This is my thinking. Police, when caught in the commission of a felony crime and/or when caught actively attempting to cover up the evidence, should be immediately jailed, tried, convicted, and hung by the neck until dead in the public square. They have a sacred trust to protect the citizenry; when they egregiously violate it, they should pay with their lives.
To those who would say I’m anti-police, I also support entering the inner cities and rounding up/executing all gang members, drug dealers, and other repeat offenders. This would hopefully reduce the burden and stress on police to often enforce the unenforceable.
Well, in a situation where there is a felony crime, jailed like an ordinary citizen, bond set as appropriate, and so on.
It will be quite interesting to see how this plays out. I can’t believe they put him on the hood but if they did, then they attempted to kill the guy to cover up their mess.
Can’t wait until the Jackboot Lickers arrive to explain that everything the police “officers” did here was perfectly okay.
1. It’s not just phoenix.
2. Empowering funding and arming the government is a big mistake.
3. We have an institutional problem with Police in this country, the way they are trained and the culture of us vs them.
4. Government is the problem, not the solution..
Solution: De-fund the government, city, county, federal. Good things will happen.
I mean these are the men who have the training and they face things very day that you and I just couldn't even begin to understand.
And since no officer has said it actually happened that way, you can't believe it actually happened that way, even if the 911 tapes corroborates the lies told by the family just so they can get a big payday, don't we owe these heroes, nay, SUPERHEROES one or two, or three, maybe four unjustified shootings?
Possibly five, I mean, man these guys are the only thing between you and the ravening hordes who will come into your home and shoot you in the back multiple times before dragging you out by your leg in front of your family while you are laying there bleeding to death.
Give a cop a break man.
That’s a great reply because the first thing the law and order conservative does is use fear to justify the necessity of having an armed and aggressive government presence. I say de-fund them and I have people tell me that our society will de generate into Somalia. So fear is the driving factor behind an aggressive and omnipresent police force. A police force that despises everyone who isn’t... Police.
You shot him by accident, OK, it’s an accident. But such an intentional effort to ensure he dies may qualify as murder, if not manslaughter. If they’d called an ambulance after the mistake of shooting the wrong guy, it’s a minor lawsuit. Intentionally trying to kill him so there are fewer witnesses to a cover up, that’s evil.
These cops should spend the rest of their lives in jail, if not be executed for murder.
Ah, come on Decker, you know the deal: if you’re not cop you’re little people.
and if you do call 9-1-1, make sure to leave the phone off the hook!
A guy who robs you is robbing you, but being robbed by someone in uniform is also lying and hypocritical. If the police are to see citizen cooperation, they must be more honest and honorable than the average citizen.
My guess is he was promoted to Detective . . .
This is an institutional problem, not a one off “bad cop” problem. This stuff happens in big cities and small all over the Country. Yet people continue to ask for more and more intrusive laws to keep them safe.
Are you saying the cops love to shoot dogs, using any excuse whatsoever to do so?
I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.
And the asses of the officers involved.Unfreakingbelievable.
Yep,I like all of what you said.
It is more likely that they will get some sort of department commendation.
LOL
You’re a man after my own heart.
As I recall, it was the Phoenix office of the FBI that got caught with a very embarrassing little booklet painting conservatives, patriots and constitutionalists as potential terrorists or some such nonsense.
Looks like Arizona can use a good housecleaning. While they're at it, please include McCain in the clean-up process.
Huh?
Sounds like the Feds need to be involved in this case. It’s very troubling.
The Altamonte Springs Florida police force finally fired the buffoon (Master Policeman Maupin) that put 2 people in the hospital due to his 104 mph joyride while on duty and outside his jurisdiction that ended in him rear ending a Honda stopped at a light..
One person recovered but will no doubt have problems later in life from the crash ,, the other person is still in a COMA a year later..
Oh ,, the penalty for destroying 2 lives you ask? He got a ticket for not wearing his seat belt and was fired ... look out ... he'll no doubt get a job in your city next!
But then I guess that's OK because they really are better than us and we should all be thankful they're out there diligently fulfilling their ticket quotas.
Are you saying the cops love to shoot dogs, using any excuse whatsoever to do so?
I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.
***********************************************
I’ve upgraded to 3 big dogs now just to ensure they stay busy long enough for me to get to my guns.
That would be a good starting point. Then there's the heads of the cops involved on a silver platter.
That would top things off nicely.
The Feds are enthusiastic supporters of paramilitarizing local law enforcement. LEOs at the local level are bad enough already--they do not need any more JBT training from the Feds.
And then call the arambulas for the dying perp.
Ok, I'm sorry.
5.56mm
Unfortunately, that is sometimes the attitude given here by some Freepers. While the police are unappreciated in a lot of ways, wearing a uniform doesn’t make them a hero or even decent all the time.
NA. The homeowner lived.
You are so right. Had a brother-in-law, grew up with him, who was a cop in a medium size Texas city. Showed me his throw down gun once. After he quit, I asked him why. He said he realized that he had developed the “cop attitude”, that there were two types of people: Cops (and their families) and Perps. Asked him, which am I? He said I was a Perp - definition you had already committed a crime, or you would eventually. He hung with cops - ate, drank, spent 95% of his time with them. Lucky for him he woke up in time. I have very little respect for cops anymore, though I think most of them are probably not like that. But I can’t tell which are which. I don’t trust my or my family’s safety to them.
“...gross negligence, civil rights violations, failure to supervise, excessive force, deliberate indifference to medical needs, false arrest, and emotional distress.”
That about sums it up!
In terms of police salary, that could be just 8 years of income. Some ordinary cops make over $250,000 per year. Just to add some perspective.
Juuuuuust another isolated incident, courtesy of the union-thug street gang in blue.
Well, look at that—the Phoenix Use of Force board has cleared the officer:
http://www.kpho.com/news/21121206/detail.html
Big surprise.
Ditto that.
And more details:
A few hours later, Lilly told internal affairs investigators that he fired only after Arambula pointed a gun his direction, the lawsuit states.
Police kept Arambula’s wife and kids from visiting Tony at the hospital until after investigators could interview him. The lawsuit also states that police tried to damage Arambula’s reputation and deflect blame toward the homeowner. Police visited a gun dealer who had sold Arambula a handgun and allegedly “suggested that Tony may have illegally obtained weapons,” the lawsuit says.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2009/09/homeowner_shot_by_police_while.php
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