“I have three, but there is no other,” says in basic Spanish and with a broken voice, Paulina, the grieving mother of Gerardo Martínez Chávez, who was shot to death in the door of the kitchen at home, the night of the 16 July at the hands of the police in Salinas, California.
Paulina, her husband Mario and various organizations that defend the civil rights of immigrants and indigenous people demand justice for the murder of Gerardo, from 19 years, an indigenous Oaxacan who did not understand English or Spanish.
Gerardo was killed with three shots, by the police officer Mario Reyes.
The official report of the Monterey County District Attorney released “the facts” of the balacer to.
In the official report of the district attorney’s office of the Monterey County It is alleged that Gerardo received an order to throw a gun seen in his hand to the ground and that a neighbor reported and assumed that the gun “It could be a BB gun, but who knows.”
“In the call, the person who made the report told the operator that the individual with the gun he had previously attacked and vandalized his property, ”the statement said. “The caller said he believed his neighbor was under the influence of methamphetamine, in addition to being really drunk.”
Gerardo’s death was recorded in a video without audio released by the prosecutor’s office Jeannine M . Pacioni.
The official images captured by a drone show just the moment when Gerardo was shot dead at the entrance of the kitchen of his house, -just at the lock height- but does not show bullet holes that were embedded by a window , approximately three feet away where the young immigrant was mortally wounded.
Revenge of a neighbor?
The Martínez Chávez family is originally from San Vicente Coatlán, Oaxaca and they speak the Zapotec language.
“I think that I was having beers at home, ”said Paulina Chávez.
She and her husband Mario, in addition to their other children, Victor and William, were in the city of Oxnard, visiting friends from their town who had been in a serious car accident.
“He did not want to come with us,” said the mother of the now deceased. “The neighbor who called the police did it out of revenge… A month ago, because of a little dog that He kicked him and drew blood when he was about to bite him, that neighbor got angry and hit my son… since that time they threw us to the police. ”
In her limited Spanish, Paulina said she felt “a little sad” about the death of her son.
“I have three [hijos], but there is no other. He spoke a little Spanish, but no English, ”he reported. “About two and a half years ago he spent a while at the English school, then it closed due to the pandemic and he no longer went to learn.”
The official version…
“At 8: 01 pm, County Communications received a call at 911, in which the caller reported that his neighbor on Smith Street, who was extremely drunk, had pointed a black pistol at him, about five minutes before his call. When the operator of the 911 asked the caller what his neighbor was doing with the gun, he said , “He pointed at us and he’s really drunk.” He also said: I need an officer here ASAP (as soon as possible). ”
“The caller later said that the pistol could be a compressed air pistol and explained that it seemed small to him. He said he assumed the pistol was an air pistol, “but who knows.” However, he further commented that it could only be a small-caliber pistol. In the call, the reporting party also told the operator that the individual who was brandishing the gun at him “had attacked us before” and that he had “vandalized his property before.” The caller said he believed his neighbor was high on methamphetamine, as well as being really drunk. ”
“ Officers tried to get a phone number for be able to communicate with him by phone, but they were unable to do so. They also deployed a drone nearby to provide aerial surveillance ”, indicates the official report.
“Approximately at 8: 36 pm, Mr. Martinez partially exited through the side door of his residence. Salinas officers gave him orders in Spanish to come out with his hands up. He left and entered through the side door of the house several times, while they gave orders.
“At 8: 37 pm, retrieved the gun from inside the house, went out the side door, and pointed the gun at Agent Reyes. In response, the officer fired three rounds from his rifle. At least one bullet hit Mr. Martínez in the torso. He died shortly after being shot. ”
The weapon that Gerardo wielded was actually a BB gun.
The office Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni declined to answer Real America News about the protocols of the Salinas Police Department regarding the de-escalation of incidents similar to the one that cost Gerardo Martínez Chávez his life.
They also did not answer whether or not they had a training program so that their agents can communicate with monolingual immigrants who do not speak English or have limitations with Spanish.
In the same way, they were silent if the death of Gerardo Martínez Chávez was the result of a lack of communication on the part of the officer who shot or if the language barrier had an influence; if there was someone else in danger when Gerardo took the air pistol in his hands or if the policeman had other alternatives before killing the boy.
“Please note that the investigation is ongoing. No further comment will be provided at this time, ”Sherri L. Hall, administrative assistant for the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, said in an email.
“They should take care of people, not kill them”
Jesús Estrada, California coordinator for the Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional (FIOB) , told Real America News that, after the death of Gerardo Martínez Chávez, it is necessary to evaluate each interaction of indigenous migrants, specifically with the police.
“This case was a matter of life and death and that they [los policías] did not know how to work and communicate with our community. That could have been avoided. We are in a moment of structural change since the death of the African American George Floyd and we know that there is a fine line where these murders have been racial, and that needs to change. ”
Odilia Romero, executive director of Indigenous Communities in Leadership (CIELO) indicated that the death of the young Zapotec “is not the first time it has occurred and is systematic because the murderers are policemen who do not know our existence. ”
For their part, Airam Coronado, assistant of leadership programs and César Lara, director of policies and programs of the group MILPA, an organization of activists children of migrants are directly helping the Martínez Chávez family with the opening of a GoFundMe account to repatriate Gerardo’s mortal remains to Mexico.
“This is very sad; for many years the Salinas police have not had the best relations with the immigrant community, ”said Cesar. “Only in 2014 killed five people. ”
“From 2013, in total they have killed nine ”, added Airam Coronado.
They were: Juan Luis Acuña , Ángel Ruiz , Osman Hernández , Carlos Mejía Gómez , Frank Alvarado , Jaime García , Marlon Joel Rodas , Brenda R. Mendoza Y Gerardo Martínez Chávez .
Meanwhile, a father also demands justice.
“I want the police to pay. What they did should not be like that ”, declared Mario Martínez, Gerardo’s father. “They should take care of people, not kill them like that.”
They ask to reopen the case
An unidentified spokesperson for the office of the California State Attorney General Robert Bonta no denied or denied that they are investigating the death of Gerardo Martínez Chávez.
“Although we cannot comment on specific complaints sent to the department, we reviewed the complaints sent to our office and we We take the concerns of the community very seriously ”, says the response sent to this newspaper.
“With that said, we can confirm that our office is not currently involved in this matter. To clarify, local authorities, in line with the existing process in California, would be the main response agencies in these cases and would be better positioned to provide updates. ”
The 28 September 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Assembly Bill 1506, which requires the Department of Justice to investigate incidents of an OIS (Officer Involved in a Shooting) that results in the death of an unarmed civilian.
“The California Department of Justice (DOJ) refused to investigate this shooting because Mr. Martinez was armed in accordance with the interpretation of DOJ statute, ”the Monterey County prosecutor’s office said. “The statute establishes that a“ deadly weapon ”includes, but is not limited to, any loaded weapon from which a shot can be fired, easily capable of causing death or other serious physical injury. The DOJ informed stakeholders throughout the state that a compressed air pistol falls within this definition. ”
“We have a part of the story and we want to know all the real facts,” said Sarait Martínez, executive director of the Binational Center for Oaxacan Indigenous Development (CBDIO), based in Fresno. life like our brother Gerardo. ”