Posted on 01/17/2014 9:12:59 AM PST by CedarDave
Dash-cam video released Thursday shows a State Police officer running toward and alongside the car driven by Jeanette Anaya and firing multiple times into the Honda sedan as he screams expletives and for the occupants to get their hands up.
Anaya’s car did back into officer Oliver Wilson’s cruiser, apparently narrowly missing Wilson himself, but the video shows that the Honda was moving away from Wilson as most of his 16 shots were fired.
Anaya, 39, was hit and killed by two of Wilson’s shots, following a vehicle chase that started when Wilson tried to pull her over for a traffic stop after midnight on Nov. 7.
When the shooting took place, Wilson was outside his patrol car. He had used a bumping maneuver to force her car to stop on Camino Carlos Rey. All within just a few seconds, Wilson gets out of his car, Anaya backs into the cruiser, and Wilson starts shooting at Anaya’s Honda. A passenger in Anaya’s car, Jeremy Munoz, 34, was not injured.
Earlier this week, a Santa Fe County grand jury ruled that Wilson was justified in firing at Anaya and that he will face no criminal charges. Wilson testified he feared for his life when Anaya backed into his police car, according to District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco.
But Tom Clark, attorney for Anaya’s parents, said Thursday that Anaya should have stopped during the car chase but that if Wilson wasn’t wearing a police uniform, he’d be facing a first-degree murder charge now.
Clark said he was “shocked and dismayed” after viewing the video.
“I had no idea it was going to be as bad as it was,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be so dramatic with the officer running alongside shooting point-blank into the car.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Maybe he recognized the car or her and knew she had an outstanding warrant? And knew she was a habitual F-Up?
Not commenting on the rest as don’t have enough info.
Hmmm. Misleading headline. It was the end of a chase, not just a “traffic stop.”
She ran, and then tried to hit him with her car.
Dumb perp now dead.
Whoa, back in my misspent youth and being the owner of several MOPAR muscle cars that were very fast, it was not unusual for me to outrun a cop. Not proud of it but I did it. My uncle was a city cop and once told a State Trooper to not even bother chasing me, his squad was not fast enough to catch me.
So, those few times I did that I saved my life? ‘Cause if the po-po caught me it was OK to shoot me? Not sure I’m buying that any traffic violation warrants firing 16 mostly-misdirected rounds in any public place. The threat to the innocent in the area outweighs any supposed benefits.
There are better ways to do business that don’t end with an idiot dead but more importantly, more public questions regarding the appropriateness of police actions.
Conjecture. The facts are that she backed up, hit the police car, and tried to drive off. Saying that she tried to hit the cop has just as much fact as saying that she was simply trying to get her car in a position to make a run for it. There are not enough facts to prove either supposition.
That was my first thought - that the first violation seen was the officer running the red light in pursuit of someone making a legal right hand turn : /
Will be interesting hearing why he gave chase in the first place.
Since the police cannot solve crimes after they have been committed and the perps have left the scene, they frantically attempt to retain control of persons who might, might be real criminals. If they had the confidence from competence in their jobs to know these people can be apprehended later, under safer circumstances, they would take it easy, arrest the person at the next opportunity and not put the innocent and guilty at risk.
You are right, running from cops did used to be common in my youth during the 1960s, a lot of young guys had real beasts of cars back then, and prided themselves on their outrunning them.
The idea of cops executing or even just shooting at them, didn’t come up.
the incident started around 1:15 a.m., when an officer tried to pull over a vehicle that was being driven erratically ... refused to pull over, and the chase began ... reached speeds of 87 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood ... officer performed a “pursuit intervention technique,” a maneuver in which an officer tries to cause a fleeing vehicle to spin out of control ... The four-door silver Honda Accord crashed ... officer got out of his vehicle to speak with her, police said. However, Anaya then drove “aggressively and immediately” toward the officer, and, as indicated by damage to Anaya’s vehicle, struck the the police vehicle on the driver’s side ... Anaya has an arrest history that includes a charge of battery against a household member ... a 34-year-old male passenger was taken to the hospital for an examination of slight injuries that were not life-threatening.
DRUG test te Police. Weekly.. Or do we just get upset about pro Sports?
She was probably afraid of being sodomized for 12 hours while under arrest...
Knee jerk reaction on your part. But then - with your tagline - we understand.
what erratic driving? it wasn’t apparent on the video. i wonder if that’s a catchall phrase for ‘i don’t know why i started the chase’
what’s telling is that no other cops joined the pursuit.
In addition to the money he should have received a couple of badges and maybe a medical licence of two.
She no longer has to worry about her outstanding warrant.
Yes our Law Enforcement officers have an absolute right to go home each and every night whole and unharmed. He almost didn't get that done that night.
Good link. She had numerous run-ins with LEO.
Yet another reason to never ever drive through New Mexico.
Agreed.
It is the driver that showed bad judgment. She refused to stop endangered her passenger, the cop, and the general public with high speeds and erratic driving, and then rammed the police car and nearly the cop when she backed up while trying to get away after he had stopped her.
That was a legitimate use of force.
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