Justice for Pedro: July 2016

Monday, July 25, 2016

Family of teen killed by CHP seeks justice by filing legal claim against agency

The aftermath of a deadly confrontation between an unarmed teen and the CHP along a dead-end street in Fullerton. From the
crime scene, the truck was clearly not aimed at the undercover CHP officers as the truck tried to get by the unmarked patrol car.

The family of a 19-year-old teenager fatally shot by two undercover CHP officers on July 3 in Fullerton, California, has filed a legal claim, a required precursor step to an actual lawsuit, against the CHP and the state, saying the teen posed no immediate threat to the officers and was unarmed, when officers recklessly open fired on the teen, killing him, and injuring his 18-year-old passenger in the right arm with a stray bullet.

The victim, Pedro Villanueva, who was shot by undercover CHP officers without
an opportunity to surrender

The claim filed on July 19 said the officers were unjustified when they shot at the red Chevy Silverado pickup truck driven by Pedro Erik Villanueva on July 3 that left the Pacoima resident dead and his 18-year-old passenger, Francisco Orozco, who survived, wounded from gunshot wounds.

Submitting a legal claim is a requirement before a lawsuit can be filed against a public agency in the State of California. If the claim is rejected, however, it clears the way for attorney of the victims to file lawsuits against the state agency.

The claim alleges that the two teens were followed by an unmarked police car with undercover CHP officers who never revealed they were the police before gunshots rang out from the officers in question.

"These are two boys—18 and 19 years old—who were followed out of a parking lot by an unmarked CHP vehicle and at no time in the seven to 10 minutes they were followed by this car did they ever use a siren, loud speaker or red and blue lights," the victims' attorney, Paul Kiesel, said.

Videos of outrage from the Villanueva family

Noticias 62 - July 20, 2016

Demanda millonaria contra patrulla de caminos poro muerte de Pedro Villanueva

KNBC 4 Los Angeles - July 20, 2016

Lawsuit in Fatal CHP Shooting in Fullerton

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Friend of teen killed by CHP retaliated against with trumped up charges of making threats against CHP officer

The CHP falsely arrests a friend of the late Pedro Villanueva over the meaning of the word 'dump'

A friend of an unarmed 19-year-old teen, who was shot and killed by two undercover CHP officers during an automobile chase on July 3 in Fullerton, California, has been arrested for allegedly using social media to "physically threaten" one of the two undercover CHP officers involved in the controversial fatal shooting of Pedro Villanueva by the CHP.

A criminal threat arrest against a friend of Pedro Villanueva by an overzealous
CHP hinges on one very ambiguous word: 'dump'

The 17-year-old El Monte teenager, who has not been identified because he is a minor, was arraigned Friday at East Lake Juvenile Court on questionable charges of making criminal threats and resisting arrest, both felonies, said his attorney, John Blanchard of Bellflower.

The teen surrendered to Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies on Tuesday afternoon and was being held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey.

According to the search warrant, the teen allegedly posted a picture to Instagram of one of the two undercover CHP officers involved in the July 3rd fatal shooting of Pedro Villanueva.

The caption on the image asked others to find out where the officer lived, referring to him as a "pig" and used other profane and derogatory terms to describe the officer. So far, nothing that the teen has done can be construed as a bona fide criminal threat.

Protest from Latinos over the shooting of an unarmed teen

Mexican Lives Matter, Santa Ana, CA - July 14, 2016

Mexica Lives Matter. Justice for Pedro Villanueva killed by CHP in Fullerton.

InLeague Press, Santa Ana, CA - July 13, 2016

Justice for Pedro Villanueva - killed by Police Anaheim CA

InLeague Press, Anaheim, CA - July 13, 2016

Justice for Pedro Villanueva - Killed by police Anaheim, CA

InLeague Press, Santa Ana, CA - July 12, 2016

For Pedro Villanueva

Monday, July 11, 2016

Civil rights groups organize protest against CHP after unarmed Latino teen is shot by undercover CHP officers who fail to follow proper police procedure

Protestors take to the street and picket the CHP office in Santa Ana after the Villanueva shooting in Fullerton

Demonstrators gathered Sunday outside the California Highway Patrol office in Santa Ana, organized by local Latino civil rights groups, to protest last week's fatal shooting of an unarmed 19-year-old teen shot by undercover CHP officers.

The protest was organized by local Latino civil rights activist
Naui Huitzilopotchtli who is a part of the Mexica Movement

The dead Latino teen in question, Pedro Villanueva of Chatsworth, had merely attended an illegal street car "sideshow" organized near a Santa Fe Springs swap meet and was chased and cornered by undercover CHP officers, who never identified themselves as police officers, into a dead-end street on a residential Fullerton cul-de-sac.

When officers, who still failed to identify themselves as police officers, drew their weapons on Villanueva, he thought he was being assaulted by robbers and tried to get to safety through the only avenue of escape he had at his disposal through the narrow dead-end street he had mistakenly entered.

He tried to make a desperate attempt to make a U-turn to try escape from his unidentified assailants by driving out of the narrow dead-end street, where the suspicious unmarked car and officers in plain clothes were.

Two undercover CHP officers under investigation for deadly shooting of unarmed teen

An unarmed teenager, Pedro Villanueva, was shot and killed by undercover CHP officers in Fullerton on Sunday

Two undercover California Highway Patrol officers are under investigation from the Orange County D.A.'s office and by the CHP's own Internal Affairs department after they were accused of recklessly opening fire on an unarmed teen behind the wheel of a moving vehicle in Fullerton at around 10:50 p.m. on Sunday, July 3rd, killing the driver and injuring his 18-year-old passenger with gunshots.

The aftermath of the CHP shooting in Fullerton where Pedro Villanueva was
killed by undercover CHP officers

The undercover, plain-clothes officers were part of a larger CHP task force aimed at imposing a "zero tolerance" policy in cracking down on illegal street racing events over the long holiday weekend and were monitoring one such underground hot rod "sideshow" event outside a Santa Fe Springs swap meet Sunday evening, where about 80 trucks and off-road vehicles were performing adrenaline-fueled burnouts and doing doughnuts with their vehicles.

The CHP may have been interested and gotten wind of the event upon hearing there were doughnuts at the event.

As uniformed officers closed in on the event, the attendees of the sideshow event scattered, including 19-year-old Pedro Erik Villanueva of Canoga Park and his passenger, 18-year-old Francisco Orozco of Santa Fe Springs, who were spectators of the event, in Villanueva's red Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Villanueva and Orozco were merely car enthusiasts among the audience of the illegal street car event and were not participating in the dangerous stunts performed by other "sideshow" participants.