- Gonzalo Martinez had no criminal record.
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- His mother says he was a hard-working young man in an
import-export business who supported her while helping to put his brother
through college.
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- But on Feb. 15 he was shot dead after being pulled over
for a traffic violation by Downey, Calif., police. A video, shown last
night on "The O'Reilly Factor," appears to show the young man
raising his hands on the orders of the police before being shot repeatedly
by a police officer wielding an assault rifle.
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- A spokesman for the city of Downey said Wednesday that
a second, unreleased video of the police shooting of Gonzalo Martinez shows
Martinez's hands were not raised at the time, supporting the city's contention
that the shooting was justified.
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- The shooting has brought months of protests in Downey
and was shown repeatedly on local Spanish-language television and in Argentina,
where Martinez's parents came from. But the case has frustrated the family
because it has drawn less attention than the highly publicized beating
of a 16-year-old in Inglewood in July.
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- Robert Alaniz of Hill & Knowlton, the public relations
firm hired by the city to represent it in the case, said the second video,
shot with a camera mounted on the dashboard of a police car that had pursued
Martinez, would not be released until the district attorney's office finishes
its investigation of the Feb. 15 shooting.
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- Alaniz said the police video would be made available
to the media "when, as we expect, the district attorney concurs with
[our opinion], that this shooting was justified."
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- He said the district attorney's office has been provided
with the police video.
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- Downey "is trying to urge the D.A. to push forward
on his investigation," Alaniz said.
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- The FBI also is investigating the Martinez shooting,
which has led to demonstrations by the Martinez family and Latino activists.
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- According to the police account, the shooting occurred
after a 12-minute chase, during which Martinez at one point backed his
car toward officers in an apparent attempt to run them over. A coroner's
report added that, when Martinez later emerged from his car, he made "furtive"
movements with one hand, which led the police to open fire.
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- Steve Lerman, the attorney who is representing the family
in a lawsuit against the city, said that he has been trying, so far without
success, to obtain a copy of the police video and that he believes there
may even be a third video, shot from a police helicopter.
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- In any case, Lerman said, the district attorney's investigation
has had access to eyewitnesses who believe that the police shooting of
Martinez was not justified.
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- If the eyewitnesses are given proper credence, "they'll
have no choice but to find that this shooting was not only not justified
but was a criminal act," Lerman said.
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