Neighbors dispute police chief’s claim that man fired at police

Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
March 26, 2014

A mere nine days after essentially executing a homeless man for illegally camping in the Sandia foothills, police in Albuquerque are again being accused of murdering someone in cold blood.

Several witnesses and family members say, however, that Redwine never threatened anyone, but that upon exiting an apartment to greet officers with a gun held to his own head, “..police officers shot and killed him without giving him a chance to surrender,” according to the Albuquerque Journal.

Prior to gunning Redwine down, police had his sister speak with him over the phone as a means of getting him to exit the apartment, where he was held up with two of his nephews.

Wynema Gonzagowski, a neighbor who witnessed the events unfold, recounted the story to The Journal:

“She (the sister) tells him (a police officer) ‘I’ve got my brother on the phone. I’m talking to him. He wants to come out. He’s scared. He’s going to send the boys out and then he’s going to follow them out.’”

“…She (the sister) kept telling her brother over and over ‘They’re not going to shoot you, they’re not going to shoot you. They’re not going to hurt you.

“The cop tells her (the sister) to tell him to drop the cell phone, so obviously the cop knew he had a cell phone in his hand. She (the sister) starts to tell him (the suspect) to drop the cell phone, and the cop grabs the phone out of her hand and hangs it up. He hung it up. He could have talked with the guy and told the guy himself to drop the cell phone, but he (the cop) hung up.”

“Not even a minute later, they just shot him,” another neighbor recalled, noting he had heard family members “begging” officers not to kill Redwine. “I didn’t expect this to happen, for them to shoot him right away.”

Redwine’s sister, Tammy, said a police lieutenant had reassured her they would rely on non-lethal options to subdue him. “I watched him fall. As I saw him fall, I could see his shirt turning red, and I knew the lieutenant lied to me,” Tammy told The Journal. “They used live rounds.”

To make matters worse, APD police chief Gordon Eden, barely in his second month at the department, is also being accused of lying about how the events unfolded. In an early morning news conference today, the police chief claimed the suspect shot at officers and that, in fear for their lives, they shot back, an account disputed by witnesses and video footage of the event.

“It is the chief of police who is lying,” Tammy Redwine cried to The Journal. “How could the chief of police lie like that?”

“They tried to say that he shot at them? They’re full of it. I saw the whole thing. He was no threat whatsoever,” another neighbor stated.

Police may have chosen lethal means of confronting Redwine due to his lengthy rap sheet, which included offenses ranging from marijuana possession to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a felony charge.

However, APD is already under a Justice Department investigation for “a pattern or practice of use of excessive force in violation of the Constitution and federal law,” according to the Santa Fe Reporter. (emphasis theirs)

So far, APD has racked up a death toll of 23 citizens in just over 4 years. The ABQ Journal compiled an impressive timeline of the various incidents that ultimately led the DOJ to launch an investigation.

Below an Albuquerque Journal reporter captured neighbors confused panic in the aftermath of the shooting:

Watch Alex Jones’ special report on the out of control militarization of America’s police forces after homeless man James M. Boyd was shot by APD for the non-violent offense of illegally camping.

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