The undercover officers were dressed in plain clothes and armed with AR-15 rifles when they ambushed the car of teenagers. As the car’s driver attempted to speed away – he later said he thought they were being robbed – two of the policemen fired at the vehicle, missing the driver and striking Elena Mondragon, a 16-year-old girl in the passenger seat, killing her.
The killing of Mondragon – who was pregnant and unarmed – was as shocking and tragic as many of the fatal police shootings that have sparked viral hashtags, national protests and widespread media coverage in recent years. But her death in March last year in Hayward, California, barely made headlines outside local news.
That’s largely because no one recorded the incident on a smartphone. Likewise, none of the 7 officers present turned on the body cameras they were wearing. As a result, law enforcement’s narrative – that the shooting was necessary as they tried to arrest the driver – has largely prevailed. The policemen were cleared and sent back to work.
On March 14, 2017, police found the BMW tucked into the last parking spot on a dead-end street in Hayward. Mondragon, Tiger, Copes, and Mondragon’s cousin were swimming in Apartment complex’s pool. It was a warm March afternoon. They stayed poolside for about an hour while an undercover officer observed them.
The arrest team’s plan was to wait until Tiger, Copes, and the two girls returned from the pool and got into the BMW. From there, the police would conduct a maneuver to block the BMW in its parking spot with their own vehicles, and arrest the suspects at gunpoint.
But it didn’t work out that way. Instead, Tiger, Copes, Cabrera, and Mondragon got into the BMW and Tiger immediately began to drive out of the parking lot. Chahouati, who was steering the police van, pulled up bumper to bumper with the BMW. Miskella placed the Honda so that its front was even with the back of the van while blocking the other lane in the narrow exit to the parking lot. From there, the officers exited, drew their weapons, lit up police lights in their vehicles, and ordered the BMW’s occupants to put their hands in the air.
According to the DA’s report, Tiger didn’t comply. He backed up the BMW and then accelerated forward toward police.
Detective Hernandez told the DA’s office he thought Officer Chahouati had already been run down and that Miskella was next. He fired twice into the BMW with his rifle. Miskella fired five rounds from his rifle also at the car as it zipped past. Mondragon was the only occupant of the BMW struck by gunfire.
The Fremont Police Department’s use of force policy states that firing shots at a moving vehicle is “rarely effective,” and that officers should move out of the path of cars instead of shooting. It prohibits officers from firing at moving vehicles except “when the officer reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the threat of the vehicle.”
Minjares said his sister, Mondragon’s mother, and her extended family were shaken by her sudden death and the official silence that followed. After reviewing court records, police reports, and the DA’s review of the case, he questioned why police allowed Tiger to get into a car before they moved to arrest him. “You let him pick his weapon. You let him have a car,” Minjares said. “Why didn’t they arrest him while they were at the pool?”
Cops Cleared in Killing of Pregnant Teen
Police shot a pregnant California teen – but with no video, the case dried up
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