Excerpts:
- Fatally shot were [Alfonso] Limon, whose sister said he was jogging in the area, and Jose Zepeda, 24, of Oxnard, who was one of the two who ran from police, officials said. The other person who ran, Justin Villa, 24, suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
….“It is also important to note that our officers have been impacted by this incident, as well,” [Chief Jeri Williams] said. “We send our heartfelt concerns for those officers and their families.”
Elliott Gabriel, 28, is a member of Todo Poder al Pueblo Collective, a local group that has rallied this year against what it calls Oxnard police brutality. He said some neighbors saw police shoot Limon as he was trying to cooperate. He said people are traumatized and angered by the incident.
“The rage is palpable,” Gabriel said. “You can feel it; it is very heavy.”
The group plans to hold a rally at 5 p.m. Monday at Del Sol Park in La Colonia marking the National Day of Protest to demand that those involved in the shooting be brought to justice.
“If I seriously messed up in my job, I would get fired. In the case of Oxnard police, they go on paid administrative leave,” Gabriel said.
He accused Oxnard police of corruption and a cover-up.
“We feel it is something that is deeply ingrained in the department,” Gabriel said. “It didn’t start with Jeri Williams and it will not end with Jeri Williams.”
Gabriel and some other members of the collective took their cause to Tuesday night’s Oxnard City Council meeting.
During the public comment period of the meeting, Gabriel drew applause from some attendees and a terse warning from Mayor Tom Holden during a strongly worded three-minute statement. The statement included references to one man being “torn apart in a hail of gunfire,” the dead men having encountered the “wrong set of sadistic cops” and police being in the pocket of the city’s elite “like a set of keys.”
Holden, who generally officiates calmly, sounded tense when he warned the audience, as Gabriel spoke, that they’d have to leave if they applauded again. Council rules don’t allow applause during the meetings.
Members of the collective have been attending some council meetings over the summer to protest the June death of Robert Ramirez. The 26-year-old died in June after a brief struggle with police while he was apparently overdosing on methamphetamine.
Ramirez’s parents were among those in the audience at the council meeting.
Others at the meeting spoke in support of the police.
The Rev. Edgar Mohorko, president of the Oxnard nonprofit the National Police Clergy Council, read a statement from his organization in favor of Williams and said the group hoped it could help “defuse tensions” on the street.
Colectivo Todo Poder al Pueblo 