News / Human Rights

Coroner plans inquest into US police killing of Mexican man

Saturday, 14 February 2015 8:45 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 14 February 2015 11:13 AM ]

Antonio Zambrano-Montes was shot dead while he was standing with his hands held out in front.

A US coroner in Franklin County, Washington plans to call for an inquest into the police fatal shooting of an unarmed Mexican-born orchard laborer.

The decision came after cell phone video footage was obtained showing a contradiction between the officers’ accounts of the incident and what actually happened which resulted in the death of Antonio Zambrano-Montes.

The officers arrived at the scene after they had received a report saying that Montes was throwing rocks at cars in a busy intersection. They said they opened fire in response to his threatening behavior.

However, the video shows that Montes was shot while he was standing no more than 20 feet away from the officers with his hands held out in front.

The coroner of Franklin County in Washington, Dan Blasdel, said he wants to bring the facts of the case to the public and determine whether the shooting was justifiable or not.

“We don’t want another Ferguson here in Pasco,” Blasdel told The Seattle Times.

The shooting in Pasco, Franklin County has sparked outrage among Hispanics living in the southeastern part of the state, many of whom work at huge apple orchards and agriculture industry like Montes.

“Three police officers against one man throwing a rock?” the victim’s aunt, Angela Zambrano, said. “This was murder in cold blood.”

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department on Thursday lambasted the shooting of the man who was brought up in the US.

In response, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he was closely monitoring the situation.

“We are going to need to get to the bottom of understanding the circumstances of this,” the governor said. “There will be, and needs to be, a very complete assessment of all of the circumstances of what happened here.”

The killing of Montes came after many US cities and towns had been the scene of angry demonstrations over police brutality against minorities and black people and grand juries’ decisions not to indict officers who were responsible for the fatal shootings of some African-Americans, including 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson.

AT/AGB

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