“He wasn’t a troublemaker. This was cold-blooded murder.”
~Rufino Lara’s nephew

Houston police officers at the scene claim they gave orders to this man to stop in both English and Spanish; they claim he was shot fatally only after he tried to reach under his shirt presumably to reach for a weapon. That’s the OFFICIAL report. Being a cop is a hard job and sometimes they have to make split second judgments; it’s just not easy. But lying about the incident and confiscating evidence is the exact opposite of what we expect from our law enforcement.

The horrible irony in all of this … the victim Rufino Lara asked his friend whom he bumped into the street to call the police because he claimed some men were chasing him a knife. So when his friend Florida Ruvio called the police … they pulled the guy over whom asked the police to be called in the first place.

But two eyewitnesses have said publicly that the official story isn’t accurate at all. They say that the police spoke to him only in English (he didn’t speak English) and they claim that his hands were always above his head and at no time did Rufino Lara put his hands under his shirt. Ruvio took video of this with her cell phone … but police took it away from her “telling her she was not to record anything.” Now – no one is able to see the video that two eye witnesses claim runs counter to the official story by the Houston Police Department.

The Houston Chronicle story is HERE:

A second witness, 14-year-old Rigoberto Rubio, who was buying water from a machine nearby, said he also saw Lara with both hands against the wall. The teenager said he didn’t know Lara personally.

Suddenly, Lara turned around to face the officers and was shot fatally by McGowan, Ruvio said, his hands still suspended in the air.

Stunned at the scene, Ruvio yelled to McGowan that she had killed an innocent person, and McGowan responded that “he had drawn out a gun.”

McGowan then proceeded to tear Lara’s shirt open and take off his shoes, said Ruvio. No weapon was found.

Ruvio brought out her phone to take a video of the scene, she said, but an officer seized it from her, telling her she was not to record anything.

The ACLU of Texas adds THIS:

“Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland has asked for the public to withhold judgment about the shooting. The right of Texans to record police activity in a manner that does not interfere with police work is an important protection against abuses of power by the government. The behavior of some members of the local police department might be less suspect if officers showed more respect for the Constitution, and, in this instance, the First Amendment.”

Source

Categories: Police Brutality, Reactionary Watch, U.S. News, Workers Struggle