- Police Brutality Watch

Officers, family differ over death

A man shot and killed last Monday by police in a Mira Loma neighborhood carried a handgun and refused repeated orders by authorities to stop, police said. "He had a weapon," Riverside sheriff's Sgt. Earl Quinata said, adding that officers ordered the 26-year-old landscaper several times to surrender peacefully. "They took every measure to ensure this individual stopped. He brandished a weapon at us." Family members and witnesses disagree and say Robert Mendoza was fearful about going back to prison and was carrying a cell phone and not a handgun. They also questioned the number of shots fired - as many as 50 according to one nearby witness. "He was running because he was fearful for his life," Mendoza's older brother, Daniel, said Tuesday. "He was running with a cell phone talking with his girlfriend."One resident in the 10600 block of 58th Street said he was surprised nobody else was hit and wondered why so many officers fired what he called an excessive amount of bullets, "over 40 or 50 shots, easily," said Jesse Ibarra, 21. "We were just chilling and they're supposed to protect and to serve and they're putting these cats in the line of fire," said Ibarra, 21, pointing at the neighborhood children. "It sounded like a fire fight, like a war zone." Eight officers from various agencies fired weapons at Mendoza. Quinata did not release information about how many times bullets struck Mendoza. [more] and [more]