It's been six months since the shooting death of an unarmed teenager by the California Highway Patrol, and we are still no closer to finding out the truth about what happened in a quiet, blind residential cul-de-sac in Fullerton, Calfornia when two unidentified men, who turned out to be undercover CHP officers, opened fire on two unarmed teens on that fateful night on July 3, one hour before Independence Day.
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| Unidentified undercover CHP officers shot from behind the cover of the unidentified and unmarked squad car at the red pickup truck driven by Pedro Villanueva as the truck tried to get by the squad car at slow speeds through only escape route available to the frightened teens |
What we do know is this: The two unidentified plain clothes CHP officers in question opened fire on and killed 19-year-old Pedro Villanueva and injured his 18-year-old passenger, Francisco Orozco, on July 3, after chasing them from a so-called "sideshow"—an unauthorized hot rod, street car event where car enthusiasts showed off their trucks and some drivers performed stunts like donuts—in an isolated swap meet parking lot in Santa Fe Springs, California, a suburb of the City of Los Angeles.
It should be made clear that the sideshow wasn't a race and wasn't held on any public streets; however, the California Highway Patrol made it their priority to secretly surveil the event as part of a statewide crack down on illegal hot rod car shows, and soon after, they shut down the sideshow, sending participants and attendees of the event needlessly scattering to the wind.
19-year-old Pedro Villanueva of Chatsworth and his friend 18-year-old Francisco Orozco of Santa Fe Springs, who were merely spectators of the hot rod event and not participants, left the parking lot where the sideshow took place and were soon followed thereafter by an unmarked black Ford Taurus occupied by two unidentified men, who later turned out to be undercover CHP officers.
The teens, who had not participated in any of the stunts in the sideshow, quickly became fearful for their lives because they were being followed by two unidentified, shady characters they thought were out to either rob them or do them some harm.
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| Santa Fe Springs CHP area office Captain David Moeller offers no explanation why undercover CHP detectives shot at unarmed teenagers without ever identifying themselves as police officers |
The unidentified, undercover patrolman continued to chase the young men anyway, incognito, and they later alleged in their own defense for the shooting that Villanova's truck reached speeds of nearly 90 mph; however given the circumstances that the teens were being chased by two shady characters whom they thought were out to harm them, it was not unreasonable for the frightened teens to try to lose their assailants out of fear for their own lives.
There were, however, plenty of opportunities where the undercover officers in question should have identified themselves, through siren lights, bull horn, or even calling for backup from uniformed patrol units, to give the teens an opportunity to voluntarily pull over and peacefully resolve the misunderstanding, but they were never given this opportunity under the pretense of the judicial system of being entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
The teens soon got lost as they were trying to lose what they thought were a couple of shady characters in a black Ford Taurus, and found themselves cornered in a dead end, residential cul-de-sac near a municipal airport in Fullerton, California.
The teens tried to turn around and escape their unidentified assailants at slow speeds, through the only exit way available to them in the one-way, dead-end street, but by that time, the undercover officers, who had still not identified themselves, had exited their vehicle and were brandishing their weapons ready to shoot behind the cover of their unmarked vehicle.
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| After six months, there is still no answers about why an unarmed teen was shot to death by the CHP |
In other words, the undercover CHP officers were never in any danger from the teens as they were never going to be rammed by the red pickup truck as they claimed. Their own squad car always stood between the officers and Villanueva's pickup truck moving at slow speeds as Villanueva merely tried to get by the unmarked squad car.
As Villanueva's red pickup truck tried to escape the assailants by slowly driving by the unmarked CHP vehicle, the undercover officers, without any warning, began spraying the pickup cabin with gunfire.
Villanova was instantly killed while his passenger Francisco Orozco, who had done absolutely nothing wrong throughout the encounter, was shot in the arm. Orozco later had to be hospitalized for his injuries and was never charged with any crimes.
Neither Villanova nor his 18-year-old passenger riding in the passenger seat of his pickup truck were armed, and the officers in question never, at any point in the encounter with the innocent teens, identified themselves as police officers before opening fire on Villanueva's truck.
In fact it's unclear if there was even any probable cause by the CHP—let alone any infractions of the law—to even detain either of victims, given the fact that the two undercover CHP officers failed to identified themselves as police and were the cause for the teens panicking to escape what they thought were two dangerous assailants trying to rob them.
The CHP has been trying very hard to cover-up the investigation into the two undercover officers' conduct on July 3rd. They have not officially released the names of the undercover officers involved, citing the ongoing criminal investigation by the Fullerton Police Department against the CHP officers, although we were able to find out that one of the undercover detectives involved is Brett A. Cochran of Simi Valley, who soon thereafter, quietly transferred from the Southern Division Investigative Unit to the Moorpark CHP division in Ventura County.
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| The Santa Fe Springs CHP area office |
It has also been confirmed that the Orange County District Attorney's Office is considering filing charges against the two officers involved in the shootings.
Both the CHP and Fullerton Police Department are keeping silent about the case, citing the ongoing criminal investigation, but it is very clear that neither Pedro Villanova nor Francisco Rosco did anything wrong that night, except being Latino teenagers caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. For that supposed major crime, one of them got the death penalty without the benefit of due process.
Clearly, the CHP has a lot to answer for, and they don't want to do that because they have something to hide, and they don't want to be held accountable for their reckless and criminally negligent actions. Hopefully, the legal claim that the Villanova family has filed against the CHP will bring some answers for a community up in arms about yet another case of egregious police abuse with overt racial overtones.
For example, why do we have a secret police unit within the CHP that doesn't have to answer or be held accountable to anyone? It's truly frightening that we live in such a secret police state these days.
In short, the CHP was acting out of its legal jurisdiction on a supposed hot rod show, that was or was not illegal, taking place on private parking lot and off of any public streets, but what was clear was that Pedro Villanueva and his passenger did nothing wrong in attending the event as passive spectators showing their enthusiasm for street cars.
| CHP officers taking cover behind their squad car proves that the CHP officers in question were never in any real danger from the teenagers before they began spraying the pickup truck cabin with deadly gunfire |
Then two undercover CHP detectives aggressively chased the teens without ever trying to identify themselves or pulling them over, choosing instead to scare the teens in a high-speed chase appearing to be suspicious assailants with the intention of doing the teens some harm.
They then shot both of the teens, who were unarmed and were no threat to the detectives while still failing to identifying themselves as the police nor giving any commands to them to surrender. Instead, the facts show that the teens got lost and inadvertently cornered themselves into a dead end street and were then trying to turn around and slowly get by their apparent assailants at a slow speed to escape danger.
The detectives were never in any danger because they took cover behind their unmarked squad car, and it was clear that Pedro Villanueva was merely trying to get by the two unidentified detectives where the speed of the pickup truck was below 15 mph.
Clearly, the actions of the two detectives acting as loose cannons shooting two unarmed teenagers with no criminal records—and who were doing nothing wrong—while violating numerous police policies of engagement would automatically garner murder or manslaughter charges, but since law enforcement protects its own, it's unclear how the Orange County D.A. will act in this case.
Six months have passed, and it appears that a cover-up is indeed afoot by the CHP, the Fullerton Police, and the possibly even the Orange County D.A.'s office because we've learned no more than what we knew from six months ago as all the agencies involved remain tight-lipped and are waiting for the heat from the media to die down before dropping the incident altogether.
Related articles:
- Latina - Family of Pedro Villanova left without answers 6 months after police killed the unarmed teen (12/19/16)
- Huff Post - Pedro Villanueva’s Family Is Still Waiting For Answers 6 Months After Cops Killed Their Unarmed Son (12/15/16), with video
