Author: Operator Dan

This is starting to become a big story. I’m trying to stay on top of it as much as I can. Here are some new updates and some analysis from other commentators that I think are worthwhile.

Over at the Daily Caller, Brent Hatley wrote a column about Keith Olbermann’s hypocrisy regarding this story. From the beginning we at TAH have pointed out that the left-wing media in this country has been silent on this matter, when in the past they have jumped the gun on other incidents like this with other law enforcement organizations. If they do report the story, they will usually leave out Dupnik’s name.  I am glad that people are starting to recognize that the left-wing media in Arizona (and now nationally) is trying to cover for Dupnik.

In trying to cover for Dupnik, some media outlets are going to try and smear Guerena. We have heard ridiculous stories about law enforcement uniforms being found at his house, which turned out to be a Border Patrol cap that you can buy almost anywhere in Arizona. Then there was the nonsense about the picture of the patron saint of drug dealers in the house, which seems to be a bunch of bullshit as well. Then there is crap likes this which has appeared on the website for my local paper, the Arizona Republic:

Among the items seized at the four homes was a silver-plated 0.38-caliber handgun, or a “Super 38,” a popular status weapon among Mexican traffickers.

Really? The idiot who wrote that (and the Arizona Republic has a lot of idiots working for it)  has watched too many movies about Mexican drug dealers. I guess when its okay to use racial stereotypes (and thats what the above statement is ladies and gentlemen) when we are talking about a veteran and gun owner, but not your average minority.

But the fact remains: NOTHING ILLEGAL WAS FOUND IN JOSE GUERENA’S HOUSE. PERIOD. END OF STORY. Even the Sheriff’s office admits that and the idiot attorney who is representing the SWAT team admits that as well. All this talk about the guns, body armor, and uniforms are just a smear and nothing else.

Radley Balko, who just left Reason.com for the Huffington Post (ugh I know but at least somone is uttering Dupnik’s name over there now) has some new info on the story and has some interesting information up about  Mike Storie. Apparently, Storie has been going around claiming that no law enforcement officer that has been his client has been convicted of a crime, but thats bullshit, just like everything else he says. One of his clients, a Nogales police officer, was prosecuted by the state of Arizona and was found guilty of sexual assault. Additionally, as suspected, Dupnik doesn’t have a problem with Storie running his mouth and is probably giving him orders behind the scenes.

Finally, there is a bank account setup through Bank of America where you can make monetary donations to a memorial fund for Jose Guerena’s family. The acct number is: #457022390833 I have checked it out along with OldSoldier54 and it appears to be legit (it was setup by one of his cousins, who both OS and I been in contact with). Here are the instructions from OldSoldier54:

Made a deposit this morning at local BoA branch. The name is : Jose Guerena Memorial Acct, fill in your own address, the number you gave me, and use the pink “Out of State” deposit form for those of us outside of Arizona. They said if you have a BoA account, you can do this online using the account number on the “inside” transfer page.

Five to ten bucks from a couple dozen TAH readers will go a long way.

Jonn added: Beat and Release does an excellent job of summarizing the statement of SWAT supervisor Sgt. Krygier.

Well ladies and gentlemen I just got back from a 50 hour bender in Las Vegas and pretty much as soon as I touched down in Phoenix, Pima County Sheriff’s Office released video and documents pertaining to the botched raid that killed Cpl. Guerena. Mike Storie, the asshat who is doing a piss poor job of representing the SWAT officers involved in the raid, is claiming that:

“Yeah, you watch the video and clearly you hear sirens, you see them (SWAT) approach, you see them knock and announce several times. Clearly, anyone in the area will know police were there,” explained SWAT lawyer Mike Storie.”

Well, lets take a look at the video:

First of all, you can clearly see that SWAT did not roll into the neighborhood with sirens blazing. They only run the sirens after they pull in front of the house and first for only a few seconds and the for about six to eight more seconds. They did not run the siren for more than ten seconds and by turning it on and off it gave it the sound of a car alarm, which as everybody knows, is a common sound in a neighborhood or apartment complex. So I doubt everybody knew the police were there.

Also, they were playing music on their Bearcat’s radio as they pulled up. I have a problem with this for a couple of reasons and I know some of you are probably are going to disagree with me (and probably a few you even played music in guntrucks during raids) but hear me out. First of all, it is a distraction. You get into the song and lose focus on what you are supposed to be doing. Secondly, it can screw with your ability to hear your comms. I wore those earpieces that the SWAT team for about two years at my first duty station and they do not filter out background noise. Finally, those vehicles are extremely loud and usually (but not always) they aren’t soundproofed. Having music playing makes it even more difficult for the team to hear voice commands. To me, this is just another example of how unprofessional this team was.

Once they arrive at the house they do clearly announce themselves but as far as I can see, a deputy only lightly bangs on the door. After that the breach team breaks open the door and then the entry team moves up to the door way. At this point, one of the deputies (looks like the one on the far left) has a negligent discharge and the rest of team opens up. As we all knew, they crowded the doorway (fatal front) but in what appears to contradict some earlier statements it looks like the guy with the shield fell down after a lull in the shooting, not as soon as the first officer had a negligent discharge.

However, the most disturbing part of the video to me involves the breach team. After the shooting starts, one of the breachers appears to run up to the door, draw his pistol, brace himself against a member of the entry team, and fire his pistol one-handed into house. What kind of Rambo-shit was that? Also, it appears multiple members of the team were dry after they shot Guerena, which would have made them unable to deal with any other shooters in the house, especially in the fatal front.

Overall, this does not make the SWAT look any better. Additionally, none of the documents released pertain to Guerena’s allegeded criminal connections and Mike Storie keeps pushing the “home invasion crew” story, which as I have pointed out before, contradicts earlier statements from PCSO.

So Mike Storie, the idiot attorney that is representing the SWAT team that killed Cpl. Guerena, is now pushing this story that Guerena was “linked” to a home invasion outfit.  His evidence to support this theory is that body armor, a “partial” police uniform (which could simply be a left over khaki shirt from his Marine Corps days), and get this, a PICTURE of a dead drug dealer, were supposedly found in the room. I say “supposedly” because this contradicts earlier statements by the Pima County Sheriff’s Office that this raid was related to drug charges and that none of these items were found in any of the houses that were searched. However, based on Pima County’s history with changing their story and not getting the facts right, it is possible that these items were find in the home, along with the body of Jimmy Hoffa and the Holy Grail. Anything is possible.

What I find odd though is that even though Storie keeps repeating that body armor and other “dangerous” items were found, he has also admitted more than once that these items were not illegal and if the SWAT team would have made a proper entry into the home that Guerena probably wouldn’t have been arrested. Additionally, this version of events inevitably leads to a question we have asking here at TAH for the last couple of weeks: Why do the raid in the first place? Assuming Guerena had all this stuff at his house and Guerena was Tucson’s Pablo Escobar, wouldn’t it have been better to pick him up at work, where he likely lacked weapons and body armor? Or maybe a preplanned traffic stop near the mine and out of residential areas? Additionally, by admitting none of this is illegal, it shows that by saying all this stuff was found, all Storie is trying to do is smear Guerena and his family.

Then there is the issue of the surveillance car that was supposedly during pre-raid reconnaissance on the house. Storie claims  that they were forced to abort after someone ran the license plate and he claimed someone in the neighborhood was doing “counter-surveillance” on law enforcement. Well according to the AZ Daily Star:

Under the Federal Privacy Act, the MVD in Arizona cannot release information on a license plate to anyone other than to law enforcement.

So that part of the story is probably complete bullshit or, even worse for the SWAT team, they were running multiple, uncoordinated surveillance teams on the house. Wow, these guys look stupider every day.

This SWAT team, even though they by all accounts appear incompetent, unprofessional, and totally unqualified for their jobs, deserves a thorough investigation and a fair trial with a professional and competent legal defense team. Based on his statements up to this point, Mike Storie is neither competent nor professional and if he really wants to help these deputies out, he should shut his mouth and go away.

Sheriff Dupnik’s irresponsible comments following the massacre in Tucson on January 8th and his department’s apparent prior mishandling of contacts with shooter Jared Loughner spawned a recall effort in Pima County. However, the effort to recall Dupnik was never properly organized and the different groups promoting it began to squabble among each other late in April. With the recall effort floundering and unlikely to garner the necessary signatures before the deadline, Dupnik felt confident enough to announce his intention to run for reelection in 2012 on May 3rd. Two days later, Cpl. Guerena was gunned down in his home by Pima County SWAT (which on a side note appears to be nothing more than a mish-mash of officers from different local units, as Jonn points out). Of course initially, Pima County Sheriff’s Office said that Guerena fired at officers so the story didn’t get much attention until a week later when Pima County changed its story for the first of many times. By that time (around May 11th and 12th), leftist blogs in Tucson were celebrating the collapse of the recall effort which was now officially dead.

I doubt that had more details come out about the shooting that the recall effort would have turned around quickly enough to meet its deadlines and get enough signatures. However, there has been a political angle to this story from the beginning and I have documented in almost all my posts on this matter the hypocrisy of the leftist establishment in Arizona in ignoring this story. There was likely some in the Democratic establishment whom felt that a story like this could alienate Dupnik from Latino voters, whom the Democrats have been trying to scare into voting for them by pretty much lying about SB1070 and other immigration enforcement efforts.

This is an unfortunate by-product of politicized law enforcement in the state of Arizona and needs to change not only in Pima County but the rest of the state as well.

First off, still no word back about a support fund for the family. OldSoldier54 has been helping me out on this along with several other people and we haven’t gotten a straight answer back from either the attorney or a woman who had claimed to setup a fund with Bank of America to help Guerena family.  I also haven’t gotten a response back from some of Guerena’s Marine buddies either. I think Vanessa Guerena is with family in Mexico and I don’t blame her. Tucson at its best isn’t much different than Mexico at its worst.

Anyways, today a spokesman/lawyer for a police union (AZCOPS) that represents Pima County Sheriff’s deputies came out to defend the SWAT team that killed Cpl Guerena. He claimed he came forward because of the “reckless statements made by the attorney for these folks [the Guerenas].” He then preceded to make a reckless statement himself:

Storie said officers found what they were looking for, including weapons, body armor and a partial police uniform.

However, this is what the Pima County Sheriff’s spokesman said earlier this week about what they found at the four houses they searched (but not Cpl Guerena’s):

O’Connor:  “We did find things that we were asking for in that.  It may have been drug ledgers, narcotics paraphernalia, any other connecting material between the residences.  Those things were found, in addition to a large sum of money.  Somewhat larger that what you would expect to find in anyone’s home.”

Waldman:  “Can you say if that was the residence where the shooting happened?”

O’Connor:  “No, it was one of the four, but it was not that residence.”

Waldman:  “In that specific residence, did you find anything related to drugs, drug money, in that specific residence.”

O’Connor:  “We found information that was pertinent to this drug conspiracy case, yes.  I’m not going to go into details on what those things were.  But it was connecting material to the drug conspiracy.”

There is no mention of other weapons (besides the AR-15 that Guerena had), body armor, or police uniforms being found in any of the houses that were searched in the rest of the transcript for that particular interview.

The lawyer for the Guerena family, Christopher Scileppi, stated this in response to Storie’s rant:

“All, Mr. Storie, their lawyer, did today was attempt to discredit a Marine who served two tours abroad, and put out statements unsupported by facts. What the family wishes, what we wish, is for the Pima County Sheriff’s office, (Pima County Sheriff) Dupnik, Storie to release facts,” Scileppi said.

“From what I understand, Mr. Storie also said that nothing that was found in that house was illegal for any purpose, whether it be the vests, whether it be the weapons. That’s my understanding. So they’re attempting to put together a bunch of different facts to discredit and defame Mr. Guerena.”

There is a lot going on with these conflicting statements so I am going to put my response in list format to make it easier to follow. Please bear with me.

1. Obviously, Lt. O’Connor, Sheriff Dumbass, and the rest of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office have changed the story about what happened at Cpl Guerena’s house multiple times and have now refused to release anymore information about the shooting. Now this guy Storie inserts himself into the picture and he has his own version of events that contradicts both the Sheriff and the Guerena family. He claims to have “personally” spoken with members of the SWAT team that participated in the raid. So either a.) he is completely full of shit and is pulling stuff out of his ass b.) he is being used by the Sheriff’s department as back channel spokesman to discredit Guerena, his family, and his lawyer or c.) he is being used by the members of the SWAT team to give them cover. I am thinking he is just full of shit, but the other two possibilities are realistic as well.

2. Lets assume for a second that the Pima County Sheriff’s Office is telling the truth (haha yeah right) when they say they don’t want to release anymore information because it might compromise an ongoing investigation. Well this Storie jackass, who is supposed to be defending Pima County SWAT, just did that. If he really was acting in the interests of the SWAT team members, why would he want to compromise an investigation which could potentially bolster the case of these SWAT deputies? Again, more evidence that this whole “drug conspiracy” nonsense is extremely flimsy or complete bullshit at this point.

3. The lawyer for the Guerena family is right: this was nothing more than an attempt to defame Guerena.

4. Even if Cpl. Guerena was Tucson’s version of Pablo Escobar, this SWAT team is still totally unprofessional and incompetent.

The shitshow continues. Oh yeah…and still not a peep from the vocal progressive community in Tucson about this. Still waiting you hypocrites.

Reason has written about the story. Word is spreading. Hopefully, FOX picks it up soon.

I am checking out a memorial fund that OldSoldier54 found in the comments section for one of the new stories in the Tucson media. I will post info as soon I can verify it.

First of all, I am proud to see TAH readers posting on other blogs about Cpl Guerena’s killing and helping to get the word out about what happened in Tucson. I am glad that the MilBlog community has taken the lead in promoting this story when so many other media outlets have ignored it (more on that in a second). Pajamas Media has a post up about it today, discussing it in the context of the Indiana Supreme Court’s controversial recent decision about illegal entries into private homes by the police. Some of you posted this story about Cpl. Guerena’s neighbors contradicting SWAT’s story in the comments section on mine and Jonn’s original posts about this subject, but if you haven’t read it please do.

In regards to helping out the Guerena family, I contacted the office of the attorney that is representing the family about information in regards to where people who wish to help the family can send donations, food, etc. The attorney was in court all day Friday and his secretary told me they would get back to me this next week. I would ask any of our Tucson ninjas to keep an eye out for any info about donations or any forms of assistance to the family.

In my original post, I pointed out hypocrisy of the leftist media and mainstream in Arizona in ignoring this story. As of today, the major left-wing blogs and the usual leftist thugs in the state haven’t uttered a peep about the killing of Cpl. Guerena. Most of them are intently focused on protecting the jobs of their commie friends in Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies Program. However, without a doubt, had this occurred in Maricopa County, where the much despised (and not without justification) Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the top law enforcement official and where a pro-SB1070 Republican is county attorney, you would have had demonstrations on a scale that would probably rival what recently took place in Wisconsin. Michael Moore would probably fly in and stand in front of the capitol with Arizona’s most prominent loony progressives and make some statement condemning Arizona as a “mecca of hate”. Anderson Cooper would probably host his show her for a week or two and pretend to be unbiased in his reporting. Similar things happened when SB1070 past last year but this could have been the smoking gun for the open borders crow- proof that Arizona is just out to get brown people…..if only it would have occurred in Maricopa County. But it didn’t. It occurred in a supposedly tolerant, diverse, and accepting county that is different from us bigots up in Maricopa. Shit, they even want to secede from the rest of Arizona and form their own “progressive” state.  The Sheriff running the show down there isn’t the much reviled Sheriff Joe but liberal hero Sheriff Dupnik.

Accordingly, Cpl. Guerena’s story is increasingly looking like it is going to be ignored by the mainstream media. And that, in it of itself, is a crime.