One month ago today was Valentine’s Day. In Moore, Oklahoma, the Rodriguez family, Luis, 44, his wife Nair, and their 19-year old daughter went to the movies, but after a family fight, they left the movie and headed for the family car in the parking lot.
What happened at that point is unclear, but what seems certain is that the mother and daughter had a minor altercation, and three police officers aided by two Oklahoma state game wardens moonlighting as security guards, pepper-sprayed Luis Rodriguez, took him down to the ground, handcuffed him, and beat him.
“Papa! Is he OK? He doesn’t move!,” Nair Rodriguez in the video she recorded can be heard saying. “He doesn’t move! You killed him! You killed him! You killed my husband!â€
By the time the assault was over, Rodriguez, bloody and battered, was not moving.
Police say he died after being taken to the hospital, although his wife insisted he was dead at the scene.
Why were the cops so intent on beating Rodriguez, possibly to death?
“He refused to give his ID,” one of the officers said, according to CNN.
UPI reports that “Moore Police Chief Jerry Stillings has said the use of force was appropriate.”
“We’re obligated to detain and investigate,â€Â Stillings said at a press conference. “If someone does not cooperate with that investigation, we have to do what we have to do to get that information.â€
The three police officers have been suspended, but with pay.
NewsOK notes that “the family’s attorney, Michael Brooks-Jimenez, made public the six-minute video shot by Nair Rodriguez. In it, Luis Rodriguez doesn’t appear to struggle or move while the officers detain him.”
Nair Rodriguez can be heard asking her husband if he’s OK while officers attempt to calm her down and repeatedly ask for her and her daughter’s ID.
Officers appear to prop him up into a seated position partway through the video. “I’m recording because this is too much,†Nair Rodriguez tells them.
The results of the autopsy, one month later, have not been released.
Watch Nair Rodriguez’s video, but be warned, it is heartbreaking and extremely disturbing:
//www.youtube.com/embed/Y6ptuQfV4q0
Hat tip: Alternet