100 druggies dying of overdoses because the DEA failed to arrest their pushers would be a far lesser tragedy!
Posted on 02/13/2003 3:43:58 PM PST by IMHO
Teen shot by DEA agents in case of mistaken identity
ASSOCIATED PRESS Monday, February 10, 2003
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A 14-year-old San Antonio girl was shot by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents who were attempting to make an arrest in what was later determined to be a case of mistaken identity, a police spokesman said.
The girl was in critical condition Monday at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Tech Sgt. Steve Elliott, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Force hospital, told The Associated Press on Monday. A woman who answered the phone at the DEA field office in San Antonio said no one was immediately available for comment.
Agents in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles were watching a home on the city's west side late Sunday where they believed a drug suspect was hiding, San Antonio police Sgt. Gabe Trevino told WOAI-TV. They saw the man get into the passenger side of a Mitsubishi Eclipse.
"A girl got into the driver's side of the vehicle, and when they started leaving without the headlights on, and at a high rate of speed, the agents felt certain that this was their suspect and he was trying to escape," Trevino said.
Agents boxed the car in and attempted to arrest the man.
"The agents in front were head-on with the suspect vehicle. They got out wearing vests that very clearly said 'police' on it," Trevino said. "He clearly yelled that they were police and ordered the driver of the vehicle to stop and the occupants of the vehicle to show their hands."
Trevino said the girl at the wheel continued driving toward the agents, and slammed into their vehicle, then shifted into reverse and rammed the DEA vehicle behind her. Agents fired at least four times, and the girl was struck in the head.
The man was not the suspect agents were seeking, but he was booked into jail on a charge of public intoxication, Trevino said.
The Left loves the WOD. It makes the Right complicit in their abuse of the Constitution.
If she used a car to slam the police vehicle, then used the car to slam the vehicle again, this is using a deadly weapon. The cops are justified in firing to stop this girl from killing police officers and other innocent bystanders.
This does not matter. She was using a vehicle in a deadly manner, and was backing up ramming into police vehicles. Even if she was fleeing the police can use deadly force if she possessed an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or to the public. As mentioned before, she was using a vehicle to ram into police vehicles. If a cop was in front of that car he would have been hit with a substantial chance of great bodily injury or death.
They may be DEA clowns who have got the wrong address, or they may be predators acting like cops to get their victims to submit. Guess wrong and a real cop will be putting tape around the scene and outlining your body in the morning.
I meant to put this on my previous post, but under this theory you are giving a person the green-light to kill any cop in uniform and say afterwards that they thought it was a thug dressed like a cop. That doesn't fly.
This is correct if you believe the police version of events. I don't.
100 druggies dying of overdoses because the DEA failed to arrest their pushers would be a far lesser tragedy!
I didn't see the other article, but it will be interesting to see if they had the vests on. If they were about to bust somebody I would think they would have the vests on, but thanks for pointing that out.
One might say, "how would a 14 year old girl know these guys were cops?"... Well, that takes you back to the issue of why a 14 year old girl was getting in a car to drive?
From the quote of mine you used, are you saying you don't believe that she rammed the cars? I'm sure there is visual evidence that the cars were hit.
SAN ANTONIO -- A teenage girl, shot and killed by federal drug agents, was a victim of excessive force from law officers who were investigating her father, relatives and friends say.
Ashley Villarreal, 14, died on Tuesday evening after family members requested that she be taken off life support at Wilford Hall Medical Center.
A friend challenged Drug Enforcement Administration officials' account of how agents on Sunday had shot the daughter of Joey Angel Villarreal, a three-time convicted drug offender who turned himself in and was charged with cocaine trafficking a day after the shooting.
Ashley Villarreal had been hospitalized in critical condition since being shot once in the back of the head.
One of the agents at a drug stakeout in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles were watching a house on the city's west side where they believed a suspect was hiding when they saw a man get into the passenger side of a car, San Antonio police Sgt. Gabe Trevino said.
"A girl got into the driver's side of the vehicle, and when they started leaving without the headlights on, and at a high rate of speed, the agents felt certain that this was their suspect and he was trying to escape," Trevino said after the shooting.
When agents boxed the car in and attempted to arrest the man, they said the girl who was driving the car continued toward them and slammed into their vehicle, then shifted into reverse and rammed the DEA vehicle behind her. Agents fired at least four times, and the girl was struck in the head.
Trevino said the man was not the drug suspect agents were seeking, but he was booked into jail on a charge of public intoxication.
Daniel Robles, a family friend and housemate who was with the teenager during the stakeout, said the unmarked vehicles that emerged moments after the girl pulled out of the driveway appeared to be pursuing her.
"It makes me really angry," Robles told the San Antonio Express-News earlier Tuesday. "This girl's dying and there are these reports that she threatened them."
Investigators from the DEA arrived Tuesday afternoon to begin reviewing the death. San Antonio police officers continued their investigation, questioning the shooting victim's grandmother.
Robles said the agents opened fire immediately after the crash and didn't identify themselves until afterward.
"The first shot was fired and Ashley didn't say a word," he said. "She didn't scream or anything and I knew she was hit with the first shot."
Robles said the girl had not tried to back up unless, somehow in the collision, her automatic transmission was knocked into reverse. He said there was no way for the car to have endangered the agents.
"How could they feel threatened when we were jammed in between (their vehicles) like a sandwich?" he said.
Law officers declined to respond to Robles' version or to discuss details of the case Tuesday, citing the pending investigation.
Robles said that after the gunfire, the agents pulled him out through the passenger side and handcuffed him. Then they reached in and lay Ashley on the grassy curb.
"They knew. I could see it. They had made a big mistake," Robles said.
and it appears in this article that they were not wearing their id vests it say sthey were in plainclothes and unmarked cars
L
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