Angel Villeda and Jose Hernandez were shot by Officer Tony Nguyen.
Saturday, January 15, 2005 at 01:41AM
TheSpook
It was an apparent case of road rage, one that led to an off-duty cop
firing shots. He says he was defending his family, but the two men shot
tell a very different story . Officer Nguyen was off duty Sunday as he
drove along Highway 6 in Brazoria County. HPD Officer Tony Nguyen says
a van was heading straight for him when he opened fire. But the men
inside the van say the officer was just out of control. Officer Nguyen
was off duty Sunday as he drove along Highway 6 He approached a
brown van, which he says made an aggressive swerve towards him. That's
when the trouble began. Officer Nguyen says the men inside the van were
displaying road rage. But those men say Officer Nguyen sped up as they
tried to change lanes, and that he was the one who overreacted. It
happened Sunday afternoon in Brazoria County. A van carrying two
Mexican nationals, Angel Villeda and Jose Hernandez, was traveling on
Highway 6. The men say Officer Nguyen shot at them over what appears to
be a huge misunderstanding. "It seems like this is a case of two poor
Mexican workers who were on their way to work and an HPD officer
off-duty got into a road rage incident when he thought these people
were trying to run him over," said Silvia Gonzales with LULAC. The men
say they swerved to avoid the officer's speeding oncoming car. Officer
Nguyen, perhaps mistaking the incident as road rage, shot at their van,
hitting both men in the process. But neither them was armed. Both LULAC
and the ACLU are accusing authorities of not owning up to Officer
Nguyen's mistake. They are calling for an independent investigation and
the release of all documents related to the shooting. [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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