Officer Shoots Unarmed Woman, Forces Her to Crawl to Him



photo of Deputy Rommel Verenzuela
Deputy Rommel Verenzuela

WARNING: DISTURBING VIDEO

Cornering a Suspect

In June of this year, Tulare County deputies went to a Delano hotel after discovering an individual, who was suspected in a drive-by shooting, was in the hotel with his girlfriend, Alexis Resendez. Officers were in the hallway just outside of their room and other officers were outside watching the windows. Tulare deputies knocked on the door several times and called out to Ms. Resendez, identifying themselves and telling her they knew she was in there, to open the door and come out. This goes on for several minutes with no response coming from the occupants in the room.

Shots Fired, Officers Go Into Combat Mode

Suddenly, screams and shots are heard coming from the room. Deputies in the hallway draw their weapons but are split one on each side of the door. Deputy Rommel Verenzuela is called by another officer to come come to him. Deputy Verenzuela rushes past the door just as it begins to open. Without looking to see who might be there or if there was any danger, Verenzuela shoots at the door as he runs past.

A woman is heard screaming in pain. Officers move further down the hall, for safety, and yell for her to show her hands. Resendez is on the ground and sticks her hands out of the door then slowly begins crawling out of the room. Officers continue to tell her to crawl to them. One officer asks if she has been hit and she replies yes, yet they continue to have her crawl to them.

Casualties of Poor Training

Arturo Galvan, the person wanted for questioning, was shot and killed as he escaped through the hotel room window. Alexis Resendez was shot just below her heart. Neither individual was armed. According to Resendez, Arturo Galvan would not let her open the door.

We have to question why, if the optimal position is for both officers to be on the same side of the door, that they positioned themselves on either side of it. And if positioning themselves on either side of the door is okay, why would one officer place himself in jeopardy by running in front of a door to join his partner? His emotions would have been heightened as he ran by the door. Hearing that door open would have made him feel as if his life was in danger but was it? He had no idea who was opening the door. For all he knew, they could have had a child in the room who opened it. He put himself in a compromising position and an innocent woman paid the price for the fear that position caused the officer.

2 Sides to Every Story

Let’s look at it from Ms. Resendez’s point of view. She is in a room with her boyfriend. The police come knocking on the door telling her to make it easy on herself and come out but her boyfriend won’t let her open the door. She’s terrified. The officers sounded like they wanted to help. All she has to do is get to them. Her boyfriend jumps out of the window and she hears shots fired as the officers below shoot him to death. Ms. Resendez runs toward the safety of the officers in the hallway and as she barely begins to pull the door open, she is shot through the door.

It’s not like she didn’t know they were there. She isn’t trying to get away from them, she’s running toward them. Someone please tell me what threat she posed. It never ceases to amaze me that so many people will see that the officer acted in fear for his life but they don’t see that the person who got shot acted in fear their life also. Somehow, that person is supposed to stay cool and calm. The reality is, officers are the ones who train for these types of situations, not regular civilians.

You can read the ABC30.com story here along with seeing the raw body cam videos of the incident. The Now This video is below.

WARNING: DISTURBING VIDEO

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