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| Prosecutor asks for rare hearing into fatal shooting of Black teen by Delray Police »
Sunday
Mar202005
Sunday, March 20, 2005 at 09:30PM
A Houston Independent School District
police officer delayed several minutes before calling for an ambulance
to help a dying 19-year-old he shot on the grounds of an elementary
school last October, according to witnesses' accounts and public
records obtained by the Houston Chronicle. A fire station was just five
blocks away from Lantrip Elementary School, but help did not arrive
until 1:47 a.m. — 29 minutes after a medical examiner's report says the
officer first surprised Roy Rodriguez while allegedly trying to jimmy a
vending machine with a screwdriver. Officer Richard McColister told
investigators that he thought Rodriguez had a gun and he shot at him in
self-defense. A school district spokesman initially said McColister had
not delayed summoning medical help, but later said the officer didn't
call right away because Rodriguez had fled and he wasn't even sure his
shot had hit him. In a just-released autopsy report, the Harris County
Medical Examiner's office said there was a trail of blood from the
vending machine to the spot where Rodriguez fell, and soon died. A
single bullet had entered on his left-rear side, then passed through
his heart and out the front of his chest. Rodriguez also had fresh cuts
and bruises on his face, the report says. A screwdriver was found near
the vending machine, but no gun or other weapon was found at the scene.
The Houston Chronicle requested response times and other details about
Rodriguez's death after witnesses and family members complained that it
took up to half an hour before an ambulance arrived from the nearby
station on Telephone Road. The school district has offered conflicting
timelines on the incident also . . ."There's a
lot of discrepancies here — things don't add up," said Sylvia Gonzales,
of the League of United Latin American Citizens in Houston. [more]
Reader Comments (3)
please help the greiving family and give them justice in these wild west cops that shot first and pull the lies from there butts later.
my heart goes out to the family of that child.
Crime does not pay but let the courts deal with the punishment..
Alluh Ak-bar = GOD IS MERCIFUL