Another Southern California Man Killed in Police Drug Investigation

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #861)
Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues

Police doing a drug investigation in Riverside, California, shot and killed a man after he pointed a gun at them Tuesday afternoon. The as yet unnamed dead man becomes the 36th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year and the second in Southern California in the past week.

[image:1 align:right]According to The Riverside Press-Enterprise, citing police sources, officers taking part in a drug investigation tried to stop a vehicle, but the driver didn't stop until he reached a driveway and then fled on foot with officers in pursuit.

When the man reached the back yard of a home, he stopped, turned, and pointed a pistol at the pursuing officers, police said. Officers then opened fire, killing the man.

"The suspect is deceased," Lt. Mike Cook said from the scene.

[Update: The dead man has been identified as Vincent Martinez, 34, of Riverside. Family members said they heard a someone shouting at Martinez to stop, followed by gun shots, but that they didn't hear anyone identifying themselves as police officers. It is unclear if the officers involved were in plain clothes.]

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

sicntired (not verified)

They used to justify putting us in prison for addiction because they said when we were in jail we weren't doing crimes.I guess they can justify killing people on drug raids for the same reason?This guy won't be selling drugs anymore.He won't be with his family either.They say drugs can kill you.I know the police certainly can.Nobody is asking to ban the police.

Sat, 11/29/2014 - 9:02am Permalink

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Source URL: https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/nov/19/another_southern_california_man