Page 10 The Skanner September 20, 2017
News
Witnesses Yell ‘He Can’t Hear You’ as Cop Shoots Deaf Man
Magdiel Sanchez, 35, who has no apparent criminal history, died at the scene
OKLAHOMA CITY —
Oklahoma City police
officers who opened fire
on a man in front of his
home as he approached
them holding a metal
pipe didn’t hear witness-
es yelling that he was
deaf, a department offi-
cial said Wednesday.
Magdiel Sanchez, 35,
wasn’t obeying the offi-
cers’ commands before
one shot him with a gun
and the other with a
Taser on Tuesday night,
police Capt. Bo Mathews
said at a news confer-
ence. He said witnesses
were yelling “he can’t
hear you” before the offi-
cers fired, but they didn’t
hear them.
“In those situations,
very volatile situations,
you have a weapon out,
you can get what they call
tunnel vision, or you can
really lock in to just the
person that has the weap-
on that’d be the threat
against you,” Mathews
said. “I don’t know exact-
ly what the officers were
thinking at that point.”
Sanchez, who had no
apparent criminal histo-
ry, died at the scene. The
officer who fired the gun,
Sgt. Chris Barnes, has
been placed on adminis-
trative leave pending an
investigation.
Mathews said the offi-
cers were investigating
AP PHOTO/SUE OGROCKI
By KEN MILLER
Associated Press
Julio Rayos answers questions for the media in Oklahoma City
Tuesday, Sept. 20 concerning the officer-involved shooting of Magdiel
Sanchez Tuesday night. The neighbor was an eyewitness to the
shooting. Oklahoma City police officers who opened fire on Sanchez
as he approached them holding a metal pipe didn’t hear witnesses
yelling that he was deaf, police Capt. Bo Mathews said at a news
conference.
a reported hit-and-run
at around 8:15 p.m. Tues-
day. He said a witness
told Lt. Matthew Lindsey
the address where the ve-
hicle responsible for the
hit-and-run had gone,
and that Sanchez was on
the porch when Lindsey
arrived.
He said Sanchez was
holding a metal pipe that
was approximately two
feet (0.6 meters) long and
that had a leather loop
on one end for wrap-
ping around one’s wrist.
Lindsey called for back-
up and Barnes arrived,
at which point Sanchez
left the porch and began
to approach the officers,
Mathews said.
Witnesses could hear
the officers giving San-
chez commands, but the
officers didn’t hear the
witnesses yelling that
Sanchez couldn’t hear
them, Mathews said.
When he was about 15
feet (4.5 meters) away
from the officers, they
opened fire — Lind-
sey with his Taser and
Barnes with his gun, ap-
parently simultaneously,
Mathews said.
He said he didn’t know
how many shots were
fired, but that it was
more than one.
When
asked
why
Barnes used a gun in-
stead of a Taser, Mathews
said he didn’t know. He
said it’s possible Barnes
wasn’t equipped with
a Taser. Neither officer
had a body camera.
Sanchez’s father, who
was driving the hit-and-
run vehicle, confirmed
after the shooting that his
son was deaf, Mathews
said. He said Sanchez
wasn’t in the vehicle
when his father struck
something and drove off.
It wasn’t a person that he
struck.
A man who saw Okla-
homa City police officers
open fire on Sanchez says
his neighbor was devel-
opmentally disabled and
also didn’t speak.
Neighbor Julio Rayos
told The Oklahoman on
Wednesday that in addi-
tion to being deaf, San-
chez was developmen-
tally disabled and didn’t
speak, communicating
mainly through hand
movements. Rayos said
he believes Sanchez be-
came frustrated trying to
tell the officers what was
going on.
“The guy does move-
ments,” Rayos told the
newspaper. “He don’t
speak, he don’t hear,
mainly it is hand move-
ments. That’s how he
communicates. I believe
he was frustrated trying
to tell them what was go-
ing on.”
Jolie Guebara, who
lives two houses from
the shooting scene, told
The Associated Press
that she heard five or
six gunshots before she
looked outside and saw
the police.
“He always had a stick
that he would walk
around with, because
there’s a lot of stray
dogs,” Guebara said.
Guebara said Sanchez,
whose name she didn’t
know, wrote notes to
communicate with her
and her husband when
he would occasional-
ly stop and visit if they
were outside.
Police initially said
Sanchez was carrying a
stick, but Mathews de-
scribed it Wednesday as
a metal pipe.
Sanchez’s death is
the latest in a string of
controversial
killings
by Oklahoma police in
recent years. In 2015, a
white Tulsa County re-
serve deputy fatally shot
an unarmed black man
who was on the ground
being subdued. He said
he meant to shoot the
suspect with a stun gun
but mistakenly used his
firearm instead. He was
sentenced to four years
in prison.
In May, a white former
Tulsa police officer, Bet-
ty Shelby, was acquit-
ted in the 2016 killing
of Terence Crutcher, an
unarmed black man who
had his hands up when
she fired. Much like
in the Sanchez killing,
another officer almost
simultaneously fired a
Taser at Crutcher when
Shelby fired her gun.
Unlike Sanchez’s killing,
both Tulsa killings were
captured on video.
Records cont’d from pg 9
Either approve the re-
quest or deny it,” he
said. “This shouldn’t be
happening anywhere in
the country.”
As his bill remains
pending in a state Sen-
ate committee, Mich-
igan State University
filed a lawsuit May 1
against ESPN after the
network requested po-
lice reports related to
a sexual assault inves-
tigation involving foot-
ball players. That and a
number of other cases
are currently unfold-
ing.
In April, the Portland,
Oregon, school district
filed a lawsuit against
parent Kim Sordyl, who
is seeking records about
employees on leave for
alleged misconduct af-
ter the disclosure that
one psychologist had
been off for three years.
Sordyl said she believes
the information will ex-
pose costly missteps by
district human resourc-
es officials and lawyers,
and the district attor-
ney has already or-
dered the records to be
released.
“They are going to
great lengths to protect
themselves and their
own mismanagement.
This is retaliation,” said
Sordyl, who has hired
an attorney. “Most peo-
ple would give up.”
A district spokesman
said the lawsuit, which
also names a journalist
who requested similar
information, amounts
to an appeal “in an area
of public records law
that we believe lacks
clarity.”
“When this informa-
tion is released pre-
maturely, the district’s
position is that the em-
ployees’ right to due
process is jeopardized,”
spokesman Dave North-
field said.
The University of
Kentucky prevailed in
January when a judge
blocked the release of
records sought by its
student
newspaper
detailing the investiga-
tion of a professor who
resigned after being
accused of groping stu-
dents.