Los
Angeles
Police
Forcibly
Enter
Home,
Kill
Grandfather
in
Raid
9/3/99
20 officers from an "elite" Los Angeles SWAT team operating under the jurisdiction of the El Monte police department shot the locks off the doors of the home of Mario Paz, grandfather of fourteen, in raiding his house as part of a marijuana investigation in Compton last week. Once inside, the officers used stun grenades to create a distraction, and shot Paz twice in the back, killing him, as he kneeled on the floor of his bedroom. Paz, who had no criminal record, kept at least two firearms in his home for protection, but was unarmed at the time of the shooting. But neither Paz nor anyone in his family was a suspect in the investigation. In fact, police got the warrant to enter the Paz home simply because his address appeared among the papers of one of the suspects, who had years ago lived in the house next door to the Paz family. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department told The Week Online that the police "had information linking the house to a narcotics operation." The spokesperson, however, said that his office had no information on the specifics of the warrant. The El Monte police department told The Week Online that there was no one available to comment on the case. Brian Dunn, attorney for the Paz family, told The Week Online that the methods used by the SWAT team were wholly disproportionate to the situation. "This case represents an extreme example of police brutality, misconduct and ruthlessness," said Dunn. "The manner in which they executed this was homicidal. The police shot through both doors and a window with shotguns at eleven o'clock at night. Everyone in the house was asleep. The family all thought that they were being robbed. We have no evidence that the police so much as identified themselves. Mr. Paz and his wife were both in their underwear when he was shot twice in the back." In this case, Dunn continued, the police had no evidence to make them believe that anyone in the home was even involved in the crime they were investigating, nor that there was any dangerous person in the house. If you're going to blast your way into a private home, you'd better have some convincing information that there is either a war going on inside or that someone inside is waiting to kill you. This was just outrageous."
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