A California police officer shot and killed an unarmed 22-year-old homeless man at a shopping center earlier this week and an eyewitness captured the murder on cell phone video.
The witness, who wished to remain unidentified, was standing in the parking lot of the Harbor Place Shopping Center in Santa Ana around 3 p.m. Tuesday when he filmed the confrontation in front of Jugo’s La Tropicana, a juice shop, between an officer and victim Hans Kevin Arellano.
'She exited her patrol car, gun drawn, and asked the gentlemen to get on the ground. The gentlemen didn’t get on the ground, he was still inside the restaurant,' the witness told KCAL9.com. 'She asked again. The man then exited the restaurant, and as he was exiting the restaurant, he said, "What are you gonna do, b****?" About a second later, she shot him in the chest.'
The victim, Hans Kevin Arellano, can be seen in the grainy video falling to his knees shortly after the bang of a loud gunshot.
The officer, a female who was later identified as a 13-year-veteran, was called to the scene as back-up after reports of criminal activity at the Jugo's La Tropicana.
Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas said that Arellano was a convicted burglar and that he was 'combative.'
'It was a confrontation. It wasn’t a casual conversation,' Rojas said when describing what occurred between the officer and Arellano.
He said Arellano was shot once in the chest.
The officer was carrying a Taser gun on her that day. Rojas would not comment on whether it would have been more appropriate in this case to use the Taser over a firearm.
When the video was shown to a officer who works for the Santa Ana Police Department, the officer told KCAL9.com: 'Obviously this is the first time we’ve seen this. This is something that is going to be a key piece of evidence. It’s something that we encourage people, if they have, to bring forward.
'This needs to get in the hands of the DA and our detectives. Like the chief said yesterday, we’re trying to be open and honest. There’s three separate investigations that are going on simultaneously. This portion, as the chief said, I can’t comment on.'
SCRIPTURES
Lamentations 4: 17As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
18They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
19Our persecutors are than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
Jeremiah 2:14Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?
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