Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Dashcam videos released Tuesday show an Arizona police officer using his cruiser to slam into an armed robbery suspect who was walking down a street while holding a rifle and firing it in the air.
Police in Marana, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, are defending the officer's action, saying the suspect was a danger to himself and others. But the suspect's lawyer is arguing police used excessive force, reports CNN.
"Everything in the video seems to point toward an obvious excessive use of force. It is miraculous that my client isn't dead," lawyer Michelle Cohen-Metzger said.
Two videos can be seen below. Warning, they contain images that might be disturbing to some viewers and profane language.
The incident occurred on Feb. 19. The man in the videos, identified as Mario Miranda Valencia, 36, was a suspect in a crime spree that included an armed robbery of a convenience store, a church burglary and arson, a home invasion and vehicle theft, according to Reuters.
Valencia can be seen in the videos walking down the street holding a rifle he reportedly stole from Walmart. One dashcam video shows him threatening to shoot himself, and he later fires a shot into the air.
As one police cruiser slowly follows Valencia, another, driven by police officer Michael Rapiejko, speeds past and slams into the man, sending him spinning in the air. The cruiser then smashes into a small wall and comes to a stop.
Valencia reportedly spent two days in a hospital before being jailed on multiple felony charges, Reuters reports. Rapiejko was uninjured.
Marana police chief Terry Rozema tells CNN the officer's actions were justified.
"If we're going to choose between maybe we'll let him go a little bit farther and see what happens, or we're going to take him out now and eliminate any opportunity he has to hurt somebody, you're going to err on the side of, in favor of the innocent people," Rozema said. "Without a doubt."
Cohen-Metzger argues that officers didn't do enough to de-escalate the situation.
"I find it ludicrous to say that we're saving this man's life whose suicidal by almost killing him," she said.
Reuters reports Rapiejko has been cleared by the county attorney of any wrongdoing, but an internal police investigation is ongoing.
http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2015/04/videos_show_arizona_police_cru.html