OAKLAND — Witnesses said Thursday that Jose Luis Buenrostro-Gonzalez, 15, had his hands in the air and was unarmed when he was fatally shot by Oakland police Wednesday.

"I saw the boy (with his) hands up and saw bullets flying," said witness Luis, who declined to give his last name for fear of retribution.

When he rounded the corner, Luis said, he saw Buenrostro-Gonzalez facing the police.
"I didn't see a gun," he said.

Another witness, Ricardo Pedroza, 17, said that when he was coming to meet Buenrostro-Gonzalez from a block away, he heard an undercover police vehicle screech to a halt and an officer on a loudspeaker warn Buenrostro-Gonzalez to put his hands in the air.

"He had his hands up and they were still shooting him," Pedroza said.

Pedroza ran to tell his sister and told her to call for an ambulance. His sister, Maria Pedroza, 24, then went to check on Buenrostro-Gonzalez before police ordered her away, Pedroza said.

"I ran down the street and saw him flat on his stomach. I asked the police 'Why did you shoot him?' The police said that he had a gun on him," Maria Pedroza said. "That is when they reached in his waistband and pulled something silver out. ... He never had a gun (when he left the Pedroza's house minutes earlier)."

Three gang-unit officers said they saw Buenrostro-Gonzalez walking near 79th Avenue and Rudsdale Street about noon Wednesday, with what they believed to be a firearm.

Police said before they could give a verbal command to surrender, Buenrostro-Gonzalez pulled out a sawed-off rifle and pointed it at them, then all three officers shot at him.

It was not known how many times Buenrostro-Gonzalez had been hit. "No one in the family is accustomed to having guns ... We are humble people," Buenrostro-Gonzalez's father, Jose Luis Buenrostro, said, disputing the police account of the fatal shooting. Police maintain that the officers were not at fault and that Buenrostro-Gonzalez had threatened them with a firearm.

"The officers reacted appropriately and in compliance with our policies when confronting an armed and dangerous suspect," said police Assistant Chief Howard Jordan. "They fired in defense of their lives after (Buenrostro-Gonzalez) pointed a weapon at them."

Police said Buenrosto-Gonzalez may have been associated with gangs in East Oakland. His friends and family vehemently denied the possibility.

"He was not in no gangs or nothing. He was calm, went to school, get good grades, was focused," his cousin Jess Gonzalez said.

Buenrostro-Gonzalez was a sophomore at Oakland Aviation High School, a charter school, his family said.
This is the second fatal police shooting in Oakland in two weeks. Last Friday, Casper Banjo, 70, was fatally shot by police after pointing a replica pistol at officers. In September, police came under fire for the controversial shooting of Gary King.

Rashidah Grinage, director of PUEBLO, a police watchdog group, said she was not privy to the facts of the two most recent fatal shooting cases, but said she won't blindly accept the police story of what happened without an independent investigation.

"I am definitely troubled that there have been three of these in a relatively short period of time," she said. "I think that definitely the department is going to have to look at this."

She called on the Oakland Police Department to immediately release the names of the officers involved.
"What other public official who's involved in any kind of public controversy has his name withheld?" Grinage said.

Jordan said the case is still under investigation.
Buenrostro-Gonzalez's body will be returned to La Palma, Michoacan, Mexico, for a funeral. [MORE]

• Pictured above: Jose Luis Buenrostro, father of the late Jose Luis Buenrostro-Gonzalez III, speaks about his son, in his bedroom decorated by trucks and trophies on Thursday March 20, 2008 in Oakland