A California sheriff’s deputy blindly fired into a hotel room in the hopes of striking the man he wrongly suspected of a drive-by shooting, striking his unarmed girlfriend instead in the abdomen.
The Tulare County sheriff’s deputies then ordered the woman, Alexis Resendez, to crawl on her stomach towards them, no different than when Mesa police officers did the same to Daniel Shaver in 2016 in Arizona.
Fortunately for Resendez, she only ended up with a bullet permanently lodged in her abdomen instead of losing her life like Shaver did by a murderous cop named Philip Brailsford who was cleared of any wrongdoing.
As for her boyfriend, Arturo Galvan, he was also unarmed but killed in a hail of bullets trying to escape out of a hotel room as cops were threatening to break his door down. Once the gunsmoke cleared, Tulare deputies found no evidence linking either Resendez or Gavlan to the drive-by shooting a day earlier.
In fact, it was the sound of gunfire from deputies killing Galvan as he crawled out the window that made Tulare sheriff’s deputy Rommel Verenzuela fear for his life. He and his partner were standing outside the hotel door when they heard the gunshots and a woman scream.
As Resendez opened the door, Verenzuala ran by and fired his gun, striking Resendez who was coming out of the room as they had ordered.
The incident took place June 14 resulting in a $2 million settlement for Galvan’s family before they even filed a lawsuit. Their 4-year-old son also received a seven-figure settlement from the Delano Police Department who killed the boy’s father.
But Resendez’s suit against the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office is still pending, according to ABC 30 which obtained the bodycam video.
Tulare County sheriff’s deputy Rommel Verenzuela opened fire so quickly as he ran past the opening door of a hotel room, his body camera didn’t even catch a view of the open door.
But the shot hit its mark. A bullet hit Alexis Resendez in the abdomen, right below her heart.
Deputies made her crawl to them on her injured stomach and while she waited for medical aid, she asked a critical question.
“Why’d you guys shoot me?” you could hear her ask in Verenzuela’s body camera video.
“We heard the shots and someone opened the door, ok?” he told her. “We didn’t know if it was going to be him coming out.”
This is how the incident was initially reported by 23 ABC News back in June.
According to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, around 4:19 p.m. on Thursday, deputies received a 911 call from a man who said his son had been attacked in front of their home on Hernandez Street in Richgrove. TCSO says the 18-year-old victim told deputies two men and a woman came to his house, attacked him and made threats. The victim was taken to the hospital by a family member, where he was treated and later released.
At 10:55 p.m., TCSO says deputies received another 911 call from the same house in Richgrove stating someone shot at the house and a bullet had gone through the window. TCSO says a second person called 911 and reported that the drive-by shooting and the earlier attack were related.
Around 12:30 a.m. on Friday, TCSO deputies allegedly tracked down the car believed to have been involved in the attack and drive-by to a Best Western in Delano. Deputies were then able to learn the room the suspects were in.
TCSO says deputies knocked on the door to the room repeatedly, asking them to come out. TCSO says Delano Police officers were on-scene at the same time to help TCSO deputies make contact with the suspects.
According to TCSO, after several minutes of the deputies knocking, the male suspect jumped out of the back window. TCSO says shots were fired by a Delano Police officer. The man was hit and taken to the hospital, where he later died.
According to TCSO, deputies inside the hotel continued knocking on the hotel room door and asking the suspects to come out. As the encounter between the Delano Police officer and man was going on, TCSO says a woman swung the hotel door open while two TCSO deputies were inside the hallway. TCSO says a shot was fired, hitting a woman in the hip. She was taken to a local hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, according to TCSO.
Resendez is not scheduled to go to trial until 2021.
