Drug Raid Turns Ugly as SWAT Guns Down Marine Vet

[Feuer Frei!]

What began as a carefully orchestrated drug raid by Arizona police ended in chaos, bloodshed and outrage. Now, a young Marine veteran is dead, leaving his wife and two young boys to mourn for him on this Memorial Day, after he made it through two tours in Iraq.
The tragic assault also opened a rare window into the military-style tactics and equipment of police Special Weapons Assault Teams locked in a bloody war with Mexican drug cartels — including military-style armored vehicles and two types of robots also found on the battlefields of Afghanistan.
The May 5 assault by a Pima County SWAT team on an address on Red Water Street, outside Tucson, was meant to apprehend a suspected member of a “rip crew” — a team of heavily-armed thugs, working for one of the cartels, that steals drugs from rival cartels. The special-weapons team, made up of at least seven men and seen in the leaked helmet-camera footage above, would pull up in a “Bearcat” vehicle — a sort of law-enforcement-optimized Humvee. Then they’d bust into the single-story house, hold the occupants at gunpoint and serve a search warrant, looking for drugs, illegal weapons and other evidence of cartel involvement. Just another day for a team accustomed to risky missions.
But something went very wrong. And within seconds of ramming in the door, the SWAT team opened fire, killing Jose Guerena, the owner of the house. Guerena, a 26-year-old Marine veteran, reportedly confronted the police with an AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle, possibly to protect his wife and kids, who were huddled in rooms behind him.
The SWAT team initially said Guerena shot first; later reports claimed Guerena never fired — indeed, he never took his AR-15 off “safe.” The Medical Examiner counted 22 bullet wounds in Guerena’s body after the raid, CNN reported. Other chilling details can be found in SWAT commander Bob Krygier’s post-operation interview with a Pima County detective.

After the brief but intense gunfight, the SWAT troopers pulled back, out of the house that had filled with smoke from discharging weapons. They didn’t know if the house’s defender was dead or alive … or alone. After luring Guerena’s family out of the house using a megaphone, Krygier decided to deploy the team’s first robot — a tossable “throw-bot,” equipped with a simple video camera.
Throw-bots have been around for years. But the machines have serious limitations. The Israeli army, one of the biggest throw-bot users, has complained that using a throw-bot early in an assault can sacrifice the element of surprise. What could be more obvious than a several-pound robot crashing through a window to land at your feet? That might explain why Krygier waited until after the first round of fighting to send the team’s throw-bot sailing into the house.


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[NeonSamurai]

Well that is unfortunate. SWAT teams generally have the right to shoot anyone who is acting in a life threatening way such as pointing a firearm at anyone else. So if he had his AR-15 raised and pointing in the general direction of the SWAT team, or started to raise it, the shooting is legitimate even if the weapon had its safety on (or even if it proved not to be a real gun at all).

However there are a few concerns, first off is the number of hits on the victim. SWAT teams are trained to fire short controled bursts of 2-5 rounds, so either practically the entire team shot at him, or one or more officers were not in control of themselves. I have to doubt that the entire team had entered when the shooting started so I suspect the latter. According to the swat commander he though they fired 100 rounds.

I am also wondering if they followed proper procedure, and why they didn't use a flashbang on entry.

[Dowly]

Seeing the video, I doubt anyone inside didn't know the police was right outside (they weren't exactly quiet). So, that should be a pretty good hint for anyone inside not to do anything stupid, you know, like pick up an AR-15 for example.

[Stealhead]

I am not saying the ex Marine was guilty but military service does not mean that a person is going to be law abiding while they are in or out of the military.There is a reason that we have military police after all.It is curious though that the man had body armor and a Border Patrol hat things that those working for cartels also often have.I find more than one set of body armor odd as well why all the gear?The evidence is questionable I do not know many ex military guys that have law enforcement gear unless they work in law enforcement and I know none that have full body armor the weapons sound normal for an ex military sets of body armor and police gear when not employed as police(law enforcement) combined is not normal.It sounds to me like this story gets attention because the suspect was ex military and had been in combat those tow things do not exclude the possibility that Guerena may have been involved in criminal activity.Some of this story is fact much of it is assumption until more information is provided.It is unfortunate that Guerena died this way it is even more saddening to me that it is possible that this man may have chosen to lead a life of crime.

Not sure I agree with the number of rounds the rule of thumb is also fire until the threat is suppressed.One of the terrorists that the SAS killed during the Embassy raid back in 1980 was hit 70 times in a CQC situation lots of rounds are going to fired and hit.Clearly those SAS men where far better trained than a SWAT team is if only 4 men fired that is 5.5 rounds of the 22 that hit 4.4 if 5 men fired not that high in a CQB there are 4 or 5 men that could have fired from the view we can see and you say 2-5 rounds from this many 22 rounds is within those limits.Flash bags are not always used either I have a friend who is a cop in Baltimore he and others have had to serve high risk warrants without flash bangs many times.

I think the 100 rounds is an exaggeration he was speaking figuratively not literally.
I dont really like the view of the article it does not prove that Guerena was not involved in the Cartels it just says that no drugs where found in his home.But hwy did he do what he did
when you can tell that it was made very clear that the police where outside? Was he involved in the cartel and realize that he was trapped choose go down?Was he suffering mental illness and though truly not involved in crime choose this way to die?What reasons did the police suspect that he was a Cartel ripper? they must have been fairly strong to have gained a warrant.

[Sailor Steve]

Too many questions. Broad daylight, so it could be easily seen that they were indeed the police, and heavily armed and armored, so fighting them was certainly not a good idea.

On the other hand, did they identify themselves from outside and give him a chance to surrender, or was kicking in the door the very first thing that happened?

Too many questions.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Too many questions. Broad daylight, so it could be easily seen that they were indeed the police, and heavily armed and armored, so fighting them was certainly not a good idea.

On the other hand, did they identify themselves from outside and give him a chance to surrender, or was kicking in the door the very first thing that happened?

Here's the video:


It'd be quite obvious to me that it is the police at the door.

Also, it is hard to hear, but you can hear the SWAT members yelling at the door before they breach it.