Civil rights organization Kilómetro Cero released a video showing police officers executing 21-year-old Jobán Rivera Mendoza and lied to the public
Human rights organization Kilómetro Cero (Cero Kilometer) released a video today that proved the Puerto Rico Police lied to the public, fabricated evidence and misled the public regarding the arrest and death of 21-year-old Jobán Rivera Mendoza.
The man was shot 10 times by police
officers during a traffic intervention last July in the northern municipality
of Carolina.
On the same day of the events, the Police classified the incident as a
“justifiable homicide.”
According to the official statement, at around 12:53 in the morning on July 23, 2023, Rivera Mendoza was stopped by agents Ismael Miranda Rodríguez and Héctor Custodio Cruz on a side of the PR-3 highway in Carolina for allegedly speeding and passing a red light.
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| Jobán Rivera Mendoza killed by Police officers |
Agents fired their weapons because “they
realized that the individual had a firearm, he was holding his firearm… [and]
he fired several shots at the agents,” said José
Padín, assistant director of the CIC of Carolina.
But Kilómetro Cero posted a video on its YouTube
channel with images from a security camera in a business located right at the
scene that shows how the young man never pulled out or shot a gun, but instead
searched for the documents requested by the officer in the intervention. When
he moved to look for the documents, one of the agents was heard yelling “gun”
and began shooting at the young man. Between both agents over 10 shots were
fired, as seen in the video.
One of the shots seriously wounded Rivera
Mendoza in the shoulder, who was then transported in handcuffs to the Dr.
Federico Trilla University Hospital. According to the paramedics' report, they
asked several times for the handcuffs to be removed because he had an irregular
heartbeat and the police officers refused. The paramedics complained that they
could not provide first aid because the officers refused to remove the
handcuffs. The young man arrived without vital signs and the doctors on duty
pronounced him dead around two in the morning.
“As evidenced in the video, when the police
officers shot and killed Jobán, the official story was that the 21-year-old had
shot twice and they repelled the attack. Obviously, this is false,” said Mari Mari-Narváez,
executive director of Kilómetro Cero in a press release. “The agents shot him
ten times, suspecting of a weapon that he never pulled out, much less fired.”
The video shows a detailed summary of the events of Jobán's case, including the analysis and contribution of Fermín Arraiza Navas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who has been denouncing the case since the beginning of the official investigation.
“That story… are all falsehoods by the Police. We are concerned that the Police are taking justice into their own hands and decided to intervene with this person and execute him in the street, without taking him to court, violating his right to the presumption of innocence [and] to have a fair and impartial trial," said Arraiza.
Mari-Narváez added: “That same day the Police classified Jobán's death as a 'justifiable homicide' in their incident report. Once again, the Police show that they do not have to carry out internal investigations to reach their own conclusions. Its primary vocation is not to be transparent before, but to excuse all violent conduct by its agents”.
The media reported that agents Miranda Rodríguez and Custodio Cruz did not have their body cameras, despite having approved the course for their use and management that the Police Reform mandates, so that all Highway Patrol officers have them activated during their interventions.
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| Jobán Rivera Mendoza was killed by Police officers, stated a K0 report. |
However, Kilómetro Cero was informed that an agent from the CIC's Homicide Division indicated that there was a body camera activated in the intervention, but that they could not share the video due to the investigation process.
“We demand independent, reliable and transparent
investigations of all uses of a lethal police force and that the State press
charges and prosecute officers who illegally abuse force”, added Mari-Narváez.
Jobán
Luis Rivera was 21 years old, the eldest of two children, and worked in the
laundry room at the Auxilio Mutuo Hospital, collecting and changing sheets in
patient rooms. His family described him as a hardworking young man who always
put his family first.
“They lied in the report. They lied in the complaint. My son looked like a person who shoots at the guards and that cannot be like that. I want the truth to be known, for justice to be done, and for the Puerto Rico Police to assume the truth. That's what I want," said Jobán's mother through KO.
Kilómetro Cero has documented 93 deaths due to the use of excessive force at the hands of police officers. Of these, 58 were deaths due to shooting with a regulation weapon and 43% of these victims were not carrying a firearm.