Family calls for investigation into police shooting
06:42 AM CDT on Monday, May 18, 2009
By Courtney Zubowski / 11 News
PASADENA, Texas -- A Pasadena family is calling for a federal investigation into what it calls the unjustified police shooting of their loved one.
Jose Guadalupe Sanchez, 41, was shot and killed by an off-duty Pasadena police officer outside Moments Gentleman’s Club Saturday afternoon.
Pasadena police say the officer was visiting a friend who worked at the strip club when two men who were arguing with the manager reached for guns.
One man was shot in the hand. A second man, Guadalupe Sanchez, who is disabled, was shot in the torso. He died at Bayshore Hospital.
”His left arm couldn’t barely move,” said Guadalupe Sanchez’s brother-in-law, Jesse Delgado. “So there was no way he could have been holding anything or go grab anything.”
At 16, Guadalupe Sanchez was in a car accident. Since then his family says he hasn’t had full use of his arm.
”We just ask that we get a full investigation. That why if he was unarmed and had nothing to do with what was going on… I mean everyone is in the wrong place at the wrong time, but for someone to just be shot like that for no reason at all, that just doesn’t make sense, make no sense at all,” Delgado said.
Community activist Quanell X held a news conference outside the Pasadena Police Department on Sunday. He asked that the FBI and the Texas Attorney General look into the shooting.
”We’re asking that this off-duty police officer take a urine test,” said Quanell X. “We want to know was he drunk at the nightclub last night.”
Pasadena police say the off-duty officer had just arrived at the strip club and was outside when the incident occurred.
They also say they found a Tec-9 at the scene.
The off-duty officer is on administrative leave. That is standard with any officer-involved shooting.
The shooting is under investigation.
Guadalupe Sanchez’s family has hired an attorney.
Quanell X is planning a rally outside the Pasadena Police Department on Tuesday to protest what he calls a systemic problem with the mistreatment of minorities in Pasadena.