Kill Unarmed Man First, Ask Questions Later: Anaheim Cop Lawyer

Kill Unarmed Man First, Ask Questions Later: Anaheim Cop Lawyer


An unarmed, 25-year-old man not wanted for any crime was exercising his constitutional rights to move away from Anaheim Police Department (APD) officers when 20 seconds later one of the cops, armed with a semi-automatic Glock, decided without warning to kill him with shots to the buttock and back of the head.

That's the story Dale K. Galipo, an attorney for the estate of Manuel Diaz, told a jury of six men and two women in his Feb. 25 opening statement at the excessive force and wrongful death trial inside U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna's Santa Ana courtroom.



"Mr. Diaz had nothing in his hands," Galipo said. "He was no threat when he was shot [in the buttock]. As he was going down to his knees, there was a second shot to his head . . . Diaz landed face down. The officers handcuffed him, patted him down and didn't find a weapon. They never found a weapon."

Steven Rothans, a Los Angeles-based lawyer that specializes in defending law enforcement agencies and cops in police brutality cases, told jurors that officer Nick Bennallack, had every right to kill Diaz because, even though he never saw the man holding a weapon, he "reasonably" assumed he had one in his waistband and might have been preparing to shoot.


http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2014/02/anaheim_manuel_diaz.php