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Grand jury hears evidence in HPD officer shooting case

By Mark Garay

(4/16/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - A grand jury is trying to decide whether an HPD officer should face charges over the fatal shooting of a suspect back in January.

It was January 7th when police got a call from the Esparza's family, saying their 21-year-old son was acting erratically and had threatened them with a hammer. Omar Esparza's family say he was mentally challenged and that police did not have to use deadly force.

A Harris County jury is listening to the case against an HPD officer. The officer is accused of fatally shooting Omar Esparza four months ago. The Esparza family says at least according to their attorney, that they will always blame themselves for ever trusting Houston police.

Police arrived and after a two hour standoff used a Taser gun and a bean bag rounds to try to subdue Esparza. Well that apparently didn't work. Officers fatally shot him after they say Esparza charged at them with a hammer.

Now, critics including the Hispanic advocacy group LULAC say the situation was needlessly created and grossly mishandled by those responding officers.

"Why go in there without waiting for the SWAT to get there, said Rick Dovalina with LULAC. "Obviously, they went in there and they tried to Taser him and they missed. They tried to use something else and it didn't work."

"Our opinion is that deadly force was unnecessary," said the Esparza family attorney, Carlos Leon. "They should have just waited it out like they did on March 19 with the gentleman that was over on Westheimer or over on the Montrose area and they waited six, seven hours and guess what -- everyone was alive."

Meantime, attorneys for the Esparza family say they will file a civil lawsuit.

 

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