Two game wardens encountered the red pickup and began a high-speed pursuit after the driver failed to signal a right turn. The Texas Department of Public Safety chopper joined in soon thereafter as the truck sped east, turning onto an unpaved ranch road called Sevenmile.<\/p>\n
Within minutes, DPS marksman Miguel \u201cMike\u201d Avila opened fire from the helicopter, trying to shoot out the truck\u2019s rear tires. Avila peppered the truck with at least 19 bullets. Almost none of them hit the tires, instead piercing the sides and back of the pickup bed, killing Coj Cumar and Castro Estrada, who were lying near each other under the tarp. Castro Estrada\u2019s brother-in-law, Vitalino Hernandez, was also shot in the shoulder and back but survived.<\/p>\n
For a few weeks, the shooting was national<\/a> news. The discovery that DPS allowed its troopers to shoot out the tires of moving vehicles from helicopters surprised both local and state leaders. No other domestic law enforcement agency in the country allowed its officers to fire at vehicles from above to end a pursuit, especially one based on a minor traffic violation.<\/p>\n Avila, Capt. Stacy Holland, and Lt. Johnny Prince, who was piloting the helicopter, said they believed that the truck was carrying drugs under the tarp. They also cited the safety of children at a nearby elementary school as justification for opening fire to disable the speeding pickup truck. After the shooting, Steve McCraw, the longtime director of DPS, told legislators that he was a \u201cfirm believer that they did exactly what they thought they needed to do\u201d and that it was \u201cconsistent with the Texas penal code.\u201d In 2013, a grand jury in Hidalgo County, where the shooting occurred, declined to indict Avila.<\/p>\n Since the shooting, DPS has spent years fighting a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the widows of Coj Cumar and Castro Estrada. The agency\u2019s lawyers have delayed and appealed so many times that the case has been nearly forgotten.\u00a0Meanwhile, Holland has been promoted to assistant chief pilot, overseeing DPS\u2019s aviation division, and Avila is now a lieutenant pilot. In 2016, Prince retired from DPS.<\/p>\n The families have little chance of prevailing, legal experts say. Sovereign immunity \u2014 derived from the British common law concept that the king is above reproach \u2014 shields police and government agencies from most wrongful or negligent death lawsuits.<\/p>\n Despite these odds, Justin Smith, an East Texas attorney who \u201cdoesn\u2019t speak a lick of Spanish,\u201d as he put it, has spent seven years trying to get the Indigenous Mayan families their day in a Texas court. The lawsuit is currently awaiting a decision in the Texas 13th\u00a0District\u00a0Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi on whether it can go to trial.<\/p>\n Much about the shooting is still a mystery. But court depositions taken in 2016 from the three officers involved, which Smith provided to The Intercept and Type Investigations, reveal disturbing new findings. Avila, the officer who shot the men, had never fired from a helicopter at a moving vehicle before and might have used his own gun in addition to his service weapon. And DPS troopers had been shooting at vehicles from helicopters since at least 2011, which was unveiled publicly for the first time during a cable TV show.<\/p>\n DPS declined to comment on the lawsuit or the incident despite repeated requests from The Intercept and Type Investigations. In response to a public records request seeking information on any recent shootings involving helicopters at the border, DPS obtained an opinion by the Texas attorney general that releasing the information would \u201cinterfere with law enforcement.\u201d The three officers involved in the shooting did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cThis should be a high-profile case,\u201d said David Henderson, a Texas civil rights attorney who specializes in police brutality and misconduct cases. \u201cYou had a policy that was going to lead to people being killed. And let\u2019s be honest, DPS patrols the border, and they know that sometimes there are people in the backs of these trucks, and they still created this policy allowing troopers to fire at vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n Cristina and Raymundo Coj Cumar hold a photograph of their son Jose Leonardo Coj Cumar in 2014.<\/p>\n \nPhoto: Eugenio del Bosque<\/p><\/div>\n In 2015, I wrote<\/a> about the helicopter shooting after a multiyear battle with DPS and Hidalgo County over the release of video footage from the helicopter and other evidence from a Texas Rangers investigation into the incident. McCraw never explained why the agency created a policy allowing its officers to shoot out the tires of moving vehicles from a helicopter. And Republican leaders who control the Texas Legislature and governor\u2019s mansion didn\u2019t ask for answers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate some people died,\u201d said then-state Rep. Sid Miller, a Republican, after the shooting. At the time, Miller led the legislative committee overseeing DPS; he is now Texas\u2019s commissioner of agriculture. \u201cBut I guess the lesson is: Don\u2019t be running from the law. So there will be no hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n That DPS would start shooting at vehicles from helicopters along the border was the predictable outcome of an aggressive militarization program that began in 2005, spurred by former Gov. Rick Perry\u2019s bid for reelection and his desire to create a Texas-style homeland security agency from which to campaign for an eventual bid for the White House.<\/p>\n In the last decade, Texas has spent more than $5 billion on spy planes, machine-gun boats, military-grade weaponry, and National Guard and DPS \u201csurges\u201d on the border. The \u201cboots on the ground\u201d strategy, as Perry often called it, has since become a tried-and-true campaign tactic with Republican political hopefuls, who don flak jackets<\/a> to tour the Rio Grande on DPS machine-gun boats during election season. The current Republican governor, Greg Abbott, who is running for reelection in 2022 and now pondering a presidential run himself, recently flooded the Texas border with out-of-state police and National Guard members and announced that he would spend millions of dollars building a border wall.<\/p>\n But back in 2010, the strategy was still in its infancy, and Perry was anxious to debut his bristling new Texas homeland security apparatus at the border. DPS hired former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle of \u201cAmerican Sniper\u201d fame and his security company\u00a0Craft International<\/a> to train some troopers to shoot from helicopters. (In 2013, Kyle was killed on a Texas firing range by a former Marine with PTSD.)<\/p>\n DPS also went all in on cable TV, granting<\/a> five camera crews unfettered access to film for six months in its helicopters and patrol cars along the border for a Discovery Channel show called \u201cTexas Drug Wars.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to give up\u00a01 square inch of this territory,\u201d Holland, the co-pilot\u00a0of the DPS helicopter from which Castro Estrada and Coj Cumar were shot, declares at the opening of the show. \u201cWe\u2019re using tactics and equipment that you will see in war zones.\u201d<\/p>\n It was\u00a0in \u201cTexas Drug Wars,\u201d which aired<\/a> in March 2011, that the public saw for the first time a DPS tactical officer shooting from a helicopter at a speeding truck, which swerved down a busy highway in a crowded metro area along the border. The pilot of the helicopter was Prince, also the pilot in the fatal shooting.<\/p>\n In a statement provided to the Texas Rangers, Prince said that just a few hours before the shooting on Sevenmile Road, he and Holland had led a border VIP tour for David Baker, deputy director for DPS\u2019s law enforcement operations; Kirby Dendy, the new chief of the Texas Rangers; and Republican state Rep. Byron Cook. Their helicopter touched down at Anzalduas Park in Mission, then provided \u201caerial support,\u201d according to Prince, as the three officials toured the Rio Grande on one of DPS\u2019s armored gunboats. After that, Prince and Holland were joined by Avila, the designated marksman that day, and they patrolled the northwest part of Hidalgo County until they heard the game wardens call in the pursuit on the police radio.<\/p>\n As the helicopter video<\/a> makes clear, the three decided quickly to begin firing rather than deescalate the high-speed chase or confirm whether police on the ground could put down tire spikes, a safer tactic to disable a moving vehicle. Instead, within two minutes of joining the pursuit on a dirt road heading toward the small border town of Sullivan City, Avila can be heard asking: \u201cAre we going to shut this down before it gets to town?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf he keeps on, I think it\u2019s not a bad spot, Mike,\u201d Holland replies.<\/p>\n All three officers have said that they thought the truck was carrying bales of marijuana under the black tarp and that since they were approaching an elementary school and a more inhabited area, they believed they should disable the vehicle before people got hurt. \u201cWe were convinced at that time, or I was, and it was the consensus of the other two cockpit personnel that that was \u2014 it was a drug load,\u201d Prince told Glenn Perry, an attorney working with Smith on the depositions.<\/p>\n One of the most disturbing revelations from the depositions is that Avila had no real-life training in shooting at moving targets from a helicopter. In his deposition, Avila admitted that he had only received classroom training.<\/p>\n \u201cThey all knew that this would have been the very first time that you had ever tried to use deadly force to disable a vehicle and terminate a pursuit,\u201d Perry said, referring to the other two officers in the helicopter.<\/p>\n \u201cCorrect,\u201d Avila said. The DPS marksman explained that he was shooting at the rear tires of the truck to avoid hitting anyone in the cab. \u201cBecause I wanted to make sure where I was aiming, and where I was hitting, for the safety of the driver.\u201d<\/p>\n Bullets tore through Castro Estrada and Coj Cumar as Avila repeatedly took aim at the left rear tire and missed. Fragments from a .223-caliber round were extracted from Castro Estrada\u2019s arm during the autopsy, a different caliber from the DPS service weapon Avila was allegedly using: a LaRue OBR with .308-caliber bullets.<\/p>\n Smith said he wonders\u00a0whether\u00a0the tactical officer was carrying his personal weapon as well as his service weapon, adding to the reckless Wild West nature of the shooting. \u201cDid he have the .223 in his hands when he first started firing, then realized his mistake and switched over to his LaRue?\u201d According to DPS policy, officers can carry their own weapons if\u00a0they receive permission from their supervisors.<\/p>\n In his deposition, Avila said that he owned at least two weapons that fired .223-caliber bullets but had neither of them on the helicopter. Both weapons were tested for a ballistic match, but the results were inconclusive.<\/p>\n Despite the tragedy, Prince said that the shooting was warranted, even if there were people in the back of the truck.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you had had any concerns at all that there could have been a human being in the back of that truck under that tarp, would you have agreed to use deadly force to try to disable that vehicle?\u201d Perry asked.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir,\u201d Prince answered.<\/p>\n \u201cYou would have?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo I guess it really doesn\u2019t make any difference whether there were people under the tarp or drugs under that tarp. Is that right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is true. \u2026 But we probably would not have picked the back left tire to shoot,\u201d Prince said. \u201cIt would have gone to the front tire \u2026 if we knew there was people there.\u201d<\/p>\n Marcos Castro Estrada lies dead in the back of a red pickup truck on Sevenmile Road as local and state law enforcement officials gather at the scene in 2012.<\/p>\n \nPhoto: Texas Rangers<\/p><\/div>\n Smith was 30 years old when he took on the Guatemalan widows\u2019 case in 2014. He said he plans to keep battling DPS\u2019s lawyers in court until the end, which he worries could come soon.<\/p>\n Smith is suing the agency under the Texas Tort Claims Act, which provides exceptions to sovereign immunity in cases of negligence. \u201cThe predominant claim is that it was negligent for Miguel Avila and the other troopers to use a helicopter to rain down bullets on a truck in an effort to disable it,\u201d he said. \u201cParticularly when the underlying offense is an alleged traffic violation for making a right-hand turn without using the turn signal.\u201d<\/p>\n If the lawsuit prevails in the court of appeals, Smith said, he expects that lawyers for DPS will file a petition for review, which means the case will be kicked up to the Texas Supreme Court, where it will be scrutinized by a conservative, elected panel of judges. DPS has steadfastly argued that the shooting was not negligent and that because of sovereign immunity, the Guatemalan widows have no legal right to sue. Chances are slim to none that the judges will rule against the police, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s just the politics of this state.\u201d<\/p>\n Henderson also believes that the lawsuit will most likely fail. \u201cI wish the public had a better understanding of how bad the circumstances are … when it comes to police brutality and misconduct cases,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are special rules carved out for law enforcement that don\u2019t exist in other cases. DPS troopers were authorized to shoot vehicles. And while I think that\u2019s a terrible law, it\u2019s going to make it even harder to hold these officers accountable under the theory of negligence.\u201d<\/p>\n After the deaths of Castro Estrada and Coj Cumar, border residents and civil rights groups placed two white wooden crosses at the side of the rural ranch road where they\u2019d been shot. Betty Perez, a local rancher, participated in a candlelight vigil and protest there in 2012. In late July 2021,\u00a0Perez and I drove down to Sevenmile Road to see if the crosses were still standing.<\/p>\n \u201cI came down here for the protest because this is basically my backyard,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just five miles from my ranch. There were probably 50 of us there at the protest.\u201d She scanned the side of the caliche road for any sign of the crosses as she piloted her\u00a0dust-coated Subaru.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter you called, I was talking to a friend, and I said, \u2018Remember that DPS helicopter shooting when those men died?\u2019 And he said, \u2018What? I don\u2019t remember that!\u2019\u201d Perez shook her head. \u201cI had to remind him of it. So much horrible stuff has happened since then,\u201d she said, slowing the car to a stop. \u201cThe military buildup, all these guns down here. I\u2019m more afraid of the police now than I am of any immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n She gestured with her hand toward a strip of overgrown grass on the side of the road. \u201cThey were there, I think,\u201d she said of the crosses. \u201cThey\u2019ve probably been gone a long time now. People forget.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Texas Troopers Opened Fire From a Helicopter in 2012. Families Are Still Fighting to Hold Them Accountable.<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A state police marksman unloaded 19 bullets into a speeding pickup, killing two men. Now, depositions unearth startling new details about what happened.<\/p>\n The post Texas Troopers Opened Fire From a Helicopter in 2012. Families Are Still Fighting to Hold Them Accountable.<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411059"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414762,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411059\/revisions\/414762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cDPS patrols the border, and they know that sometimes there are people in the backs of these trucks.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n
![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/prod01-cdn05.cdn.firstlook.org\/wp-uploads\/sites\/1\/2021\/11\/DSC_03252014-1.jpg\")
\nMilitarizing the Border<\/h3>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re using tactics and equipment that you will see in war zones.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n
Avila had no real-life training in shooting at moving targets from a helicopter.<\/blockquote>\n
![\"15769850153_5dfd3c757d_o\"](\"https:\/\/prod01-cdn04.cdn.firstlook.org\/wp-uploads\/sites\/1\/2021\/11\/15769850153_5dfd3c757d_o.jpg\")
\n“The Politics of This State”<\/h3>\n
DPS\u00a0argues that because of sovereign immunity, the Guatemalan widows have no legal right to sue.<\/blockquote>\n