Families regret calls to police after teens' deaths

By DALE LEZON and RACHEL GRAVES — 2003 Houston Chronicle

It began as a relatively innocuous confrontation between neighborhood children about an overturned flowerpot.

It ended in gunfire and the death of an unarmed 14-year-old boy at the hands of Houston police.

Last week, in the wake of the death of Eli Eloy Escobar II, his parents continued to grieve the loss of their only child, a father questioned his decision to involve police in a neighborhood tussle and a young man resolved to use words, not fists, to solve disputes.

Jesse Rodriguez simply was doing what any father would do. His 10-year-old son had been punched in the face. Rather than deal with the bullies himself, he'd called the police. It's a decision that still haunts him.

Oscar Sanchez was simply standing up for his 11-year-old brother who was involved in the argument with the young Rodriguez when he went over to sort it out, street-style.

"I kind of blame myself for what happened," Sanchez, 19, said. "Now I'll talk to parents instead of fist-fighting."

Houston police officer Arthur J. Carbonneau fired the shot that killed Escobar. He has been relieved of duty with pay while an investigation into the Nov. 21 incident -- the second fatal police shooting of an unarmed teen in less than a month -- continues.

Accounts differ over how and when the argument at a northwest Houston apartment complex turned to throwing punches.

Sanchez's family claims Rodriguez's son attacked Oscar's 11-year-old brother. Oscar and another brother, 14-year-old Jose Sanchez, said they went to the Rodriguez home a few blocks away to confront the boy. Oscar says he broke a window in the apartment by throwing a rock. When the 10-year-old opened the door, Jose says he hit him in the face.

But Rodriguez, who asked that his son not be named, said the 10-year-old was innocent of everything, except being willing to take the blame for tipping over the Sanchez family flowerpot.

When the Rodriguez boy called his parents for help, they turned to the police. Escobar was shot during a struggle with those officers.

"That's not why I called police," Rodriguez said of the struggle with Escobar. "I called them because I wanted to report an assault on my child."

Rodriguez, his son and other neighbors involved in the fight led officers Carbonneau and Ronald Olivo to the Sanchezes' apartment where four of the Sanchez brothers were playing video games with a couple of friends, one of them Eli Escobar.

After everyone had gathered outside on the patio, Escobar began walking away, telling the officers he had done nothing wrong, witnesses said. The police told him to stop and then tried to restrain the 5-foot-10, 220-pound teen.

Champernell Washington, 34, said she had a clear view of the struggle from the balcony at the apartment above the Sanchezes, where she was visiting a friend. She said Carbonneau hit Escobar repeatedly in the head with a black object that she could not identify.

Carbonneau's lawyer, Aaron Suder from the Houston Police Officers Union, says Escobar kicked Carbonneau in the groin, injuring him. As Olivo tried to get a grip on Escobar's left leg, Carbonneau drew his .40-caliber Glock pistol.

Suder said the officers did not have control of Escobar's hands and Carbonneau feared that the teen could get access to a weapon. Suder said Carbonneau, who has been with HPD for two years, could not comment because of the ongoing investigation. The Chronicle was unable to reach the officer for comment.

"They don't pull weapons as a scare tactic," Suder said. "They pull weapons when there's a possibility that a suspect is about to pull a weapon."

As Escobar continued to writhe, Suder said, the boy kicked Carbonneau's hand, forcing the gun into the air as the impact set off the trigger. Escobar was shot in the head and died at the scene. Police found no weapons on Escobar.

Washington describes the shooting differently, saying that Escobar was squirming on the ground but did not kick the gun.

"I saw him (Carbonneau) pull the gun out of its holster and put it to his head," she said, adding that the officer "shot him deliberately."

The Harris County medical examiner's office has not yet released the autopsy report. Police and the Harris County district attorney's office are investigating the shooting, and the evidence will be presented to a grand jury. The Houston office of the FBI is looking into the shooting as well.

Escobar's death was the second such shooting in the city in less than a month.

Jose Vargas, 15, was shot and killed by a Houston police officer Oct. 31. He was driving his mother's Chevy Blazer through a west Houston movie theater parking lot when off-duty officers working security decided he and his friends looked suspicious.

Vargas fled the parking lot, pursued by officer Richard Kevin Butler. When traffic forced Vargas to stop, Butler approached the Blazer on foot and pointed his gun through the open window. Police say Vargas stepped on the accelerator, causing the car to strike Butler's arm, which in turn caused the gun to discharge. Vargas was shot in the chest.

The two shootings have prompted outrage among politicians and civil rights activists.

"They're too trigger-happy," said state Rep. Ron Wilson, a Houston Democrat. "Whatever policy they have in effect right now is clearly not working, unless your goal is to kill a bunch of kids."

Wilson and Annette Lamoreaux, East Texas regional director of the American Civil Liberties Union, say the victims of police shootings are almost always blacks and Hispanics.

"You have to look at each individual shooting and determine why it happened," Lamoreaux said, "but you also have to look at why it's happening over and over and over again."

The shootings have also prompted calls for a U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether Escobar's and Vargas' civil rights were violated. Additionally, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, wants federal law enforcement to look at whether HPD's policies are adequate.

The Houston Police Department lets officers decide whether to carry pepper spray and batons. HPD's use of force policy, offered in response to an open records request and heavily redacted, says that employees can use force when necessary to protect themselves or others, to make arrests and to maintain custody of those arrested.

"Employees must use the minimum amount of force needed," it continues. "Employees who use force against persons must be able to state the specific reasons for using that force."

Samuel Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha who has written several books on police accountability, questioned why officers drew guns in either situation, saying pepper spray or other nonlethal weapons would have been appropriate first steps.

"The common denominator here is reckless use of firearms, very bad judgment," Walker said. "Neither situation justified drawing the weapon."

Carbonneau was carrying pepper spray, Suder said.

Both the Harris County Sheriff's office and the Texas Department of Public Safety train their officers to get control of situations by talking or using nonlethal weapons whenever possible, but they say that if officers feel unsafe, sometimes guns are the only option.

"There are times where if you hesitate, you may be dead," said Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for DPS.