Cảnh sát giao thông Raphael Lora, 37 tuổi, có 8 năm kinh nghiệm, đang ở trong nhà ngoài giờ làm việc thì nghe tiếng xe đụng.
Theo lời khai của cảnh sát này, ông ta liền ra khỏi nhà và tiến tới chiếc xe van do Fermin Arzu, 41 tuổi, lái, cho biết mình là cảnh sát và hỏi bằng lái xe của Arzu.
Arzu, là một người nói chuyện không rõ ràng, lấy tay phải đẩy Lora ra, và thò tay trái vào trong xe.
Bất ngờ, chiếc xe chồm lên và cánh cửa xe hất cảnh sát Lora té xuống đất và lúc đó cảnh sát này đã nổ súng. Tổng cộng cảnh sát này bắn 5 viên. Quan khám xác nói Arzu chết vì một viên đạn ở ngực.
Không tìm thấy súng trong xe van của Arzu.
Nhân chứng nói với cảnh sát rằng họ thấy chiếc xe chạy tới và nghe tiếng súng nổ.
Không có nhân chứng nào thấy cảnh sát Lora bị cánh cửa xe hất ra.
Bạn gái của Arzu nói rằng ông Arzu đã tỏ ra bất bình về vụ một người khác tên là Sean Bell, cũng không có mang súng, bị cảnh sát giật mình bắn chết. Ông ta không ngờ rằng mình cũng chết như vậy!
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Cop who killed our pa must pay
Bronx driver's kids lash out at officer who fired 5 shots
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/05/21/2007-05-21_cop_who_killed_our_pa_m...
BY NICOLE BODE, JONATHAN LEMIRE and DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Monday, May 21st 2007, 4:00 AM
Angry relatives of a Bronx driver slain by an off-duty cop demanded justice yesterday as authorities tried to determine whether the man's van was moving when the officer opened fire.
"The cop that shot my father, he needs to pay," said Katherine Arzu, 20. "He left my brother and me alone."
Fermin Arzu's only son also blasted Officer Raphael Lora, who shot and killed Arzu, 41, while trying to question him about a traffic accident.
Friends help support Isadora Arzu, sister of slain driver Fermin Arzu, at gathering near scene of Bronx shooting."I loved him, and cops took away his life," said Jeyson Frederick, 14. "He should pay the consequences. Something should happen to him."
Investigators placed Lora, 37, on desk duty while they probe whether he was justified in firing five shots at Arzu on a Bronx street late Friday night.
The eight-year veteran traffic cop came out of his home on Hewitt Place in Longwood after hearing a crash believed to have been caused by Arzu's minivan.
Police sources who spoke to Lora gave this version of what happened next:
Lora ran up to the van, identified himself as a cop and asked for Arzu's license.
Fermin ArzuArzu, whose speech was slurred, pushed at the cop with his right hand as he reached for the glove compartment with his left - making Lora fear the neighborhood handyman and musician was going for a gun.
Suddenly, the van surged forward as Lora was knocked to the ground by an open door. The cop then opened fire.
Witnesses told cops "they saw the car move forward and heard shots," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.
No witness has reported seeing Lora hit by a door.
And investigators now are talking with witnesses who believe the van lurched forward only after the first shot was fired.
No gun was found in the car.
A spokesman for the Bronx district attorney said the investigation was continuing.
The medical examiner's office said Arzu died of a single bullet wound to the chest.
Lora, who earlier insisted to the Daily News that he was only doing his job, holed up in his Bronx home yesterday as a buddy ran errands.
Activists joined Arzu's grief-stricken family at the scene of the slaying. "This incident [could] have been avoided," said Kirsten Foy of the National Action Network, who came instead of the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Arzu's girlfriend called the Honduran immigrant a good man who had expressed outrage at the police killing of unarmed motorist Sean Bell - not suspecting the same fate would befall him. "He hated injustice, by police, by anybody," said Thomasa Sabeo, 46. "He was my friend, my husband, everything to me. I was happy having a life with him."
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Funeral held for N.Y man shot by police
Sat May 26, 2007 7:39pm EDT
By Chris Michaud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Civil rights activist Al Sharpton on Saturday delivered the eulogy at a packed funeral service for an unarmed Honduran immigrant shot and killed by an off-duty policeman following a traffic accident a week ago.
Fermin Arzu "came to this country to pursue the American dream, but ended up the American nightmare," Sharpton told more than 50 people at a small funeral home in the Bronx.
Many more gathered outside or paid respects after the service.
Arzu, 41, a building porter and father of six, was killed when police officer Raphael Lora fired five shots at him after Arzu's vehicle hit a parked car on May 18.
The Bronx shooting recalled an incident last November in which officers fired 50 shots at three unarmed black men in the borough of Queens, killing 23-year-old Sean Bell on his wedding day and wounding two men. Two officers have been indicted for manslaughter and a third for reckless endangerment.
Sharpton said earlier on Saturday that Arzu's shooting was strikingly similar to the Bell case.
"This is the same case, of police disregarding the rights of the citizens of New York," Sharpton told a rally of about 100 people in Harlem that, like the funeral, was also attended by Bell's fiancee.
He called reports that Arzu had been drinking at the time of the shooting "distractions," adding that even if he had committed a crime, such as fleeing from the scene of an accident, he "should have been arrested, not killed."
Initial police reports said Lora had stopped the Arzu's vehicle after it hit a parked car and was confronting him when the car lurched forward. Lora opened fire, hitting Arzu. Officers are barred from firing at a vehicle unless they feel their lives are in danger. No weapon was found.
Lora has been placed on desk duty while the Bronx district attorney continues his investigation.
New York's police department has come under increased scrutiny following several high-profile cases of fatal shootings or abuse, including the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant who died when police fired 41 shots at him in the Bronx.
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