South Haven,
Mississippi police accused of executing auto mechanic in address mix-up
By Matthew MacEgan
31 July 2017
Last Sunday, Ismael Lopez, 41, an auto mechanic originally from
Veracruz, Mexico, was shot and killed by police officers in Southaven,
Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee in what officials have described as
an apparent address mix-up. The attorney for Lopez’s family claims that he was
shot in the back of the head execution style through the front door of their
home.
A statement released by Lopez’s family last week said he was a
loving husband and father, a hard worker, and a mentor in the community. “There
is no reasonable explanation about why or how this happened to our Ismael, but
we believe his memory demands answers, accountability and justice.”
Lopez had been a resident of the neighborhood for 13 years, and
the only time the police had ever been to his home was when the family had been
robbed. The officer who killed Lopez, unidentified as of this writing, has been
placed on administrative leave.
On Friday, attorney Murray Wells, who is representing the wife and
son of Lopez, contacted the Justice Department to demand a federal
investigation of the incident, saying that they believe the man’s death was an
execution and that the officers involved should face criminal charges.
According to District Attorney John Champion of northern
Mississippi’s DeSoto County, two officers were present Sunday evening when
Lopez was killed in his home. Champion stated last week that those officers
fired their weapons after a dog “burst” out of the house as they searched for a
suspect and claimed that Lopez had pointed a gun at them through an open door.
Champion stated that the officers began shouting “put the gun down, put the gun
down,” after which they fired multiple shots toward the door.
Wells, however, gives a different account. After hiring
investigators and interviewing Lopez’s neighbors, he discovered that police did
not have a warrant for Lopez and were at the wrong address. He also reports
that Lopez was shot through a closed front door and that he did not have a gun
in his hand when he was killed. Wells stated earlier last week that “this is
incredibly tragic and embarrassing to this police department that they can’t
read house numbers.”
An official autopsy report by the county coroner or a doctor has
not been released and could take up to eight weeks to complete.
According to local media reports a sheriff from a neighboring
county had requested that Southaven police look for a domestic violence suspect
who was not Lopez. The Southaven Police Department claims that the officers
were supposed to serve a warrant to Samuel Pearman, who lives across the street
from Lopez.
Wells also disputed this claim, pointing out that Pearman had been
identified and questioned by police as a possible witness to the shooting and
was not detained as would be expected for someone with a warrant out for their
arrest. “There was not an active warrant in effect on July 23. They were not,
in fact, executing a warrant,” Wells noted. A warrant was not put out on
Pearman until July 24, the day after Lopez was murdered by the police.
“I wound up talking to the police that night too. They wanted to
know what I heard. They said they were responding to a shots fired call,” Pearman
stated in a Facebook Live video recorded just before he was arrested earlier
this week on domestic abuse charges.
“We haven’t talked to Mr. Pearman. We have been fortunate enough
to let the press do some of that for us. So, we’ve been able to see his
position. From what we understand, he’s terrified himself. He believes that he
was the target of a coordinated effort to execute him,” Wells said at a public
news conference in Memphis on Friday. “I don’t know the truth of that
statement, but they sure came in guns a-blazing, I guess believing that Mr.
Pearman was in there without an active warrant.”
Lopez’s wife, Claudia Linares, claims that Lopez never had a gun
in his hands and that police started shooting despite the family’s door being
closed. A family friend relayed, “She said when he got up, she heard footsteps
all the way up to the door, she heard the doorknob turn, and then after the
doorknob turned it was just gunshots from there.”
“We think it was an execution,” Wells explained. “Now, when you’re
firing through a door, we think it complicates things. Physical evidence says
their story isn’t true.”
Wells suggested that “[t]his man died while running away from
people who were trespassing on his premises.”
The attorney also made a case that police and city officials are
covering up facts about the shooting.
At this point in time, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is
still performing their investigation and will turn their findings over to
Champion, who will decide whether to pursue charges. Southaven police have
referred questions to the bureau, which did not immediately return a call from
the media seeking comment. The DeSoto County coroner had also failed to return
similar calls.
In addition to criminal charges being brought against the officers
involved, Wells also called for their resignation as well as that of the
Southaven police chief. He told reporters that he was contacting the Justice
Department asking them to bring in federal investigators.
Federal investigations into police killings are incredibly rare
and regularly concluded without charges being brought or prosecutions. Attorney
General Jeff Sessions has promised to pull back even the pretense of federal
oversight put in place by the Justice Department during the Obama administration.
No comments:
Post a Comment