Probable body positions:
Probable body positions for the deceased include down on one or both knees or bent over at the waist.
Probable body positions for the shooter include standing or kneeling to the left front side of the deceased.
Additional movement of the shooter is possible if the arm is bent instead of straight out.
TBI, LLC A Forensic Education & Consulting Company (Norman OK)
By Greg Moses
Below are transcribed excerpts from the Rocha files released by the Travis County District Attorney’s office following an announcement that the Grand Jury had decided to issue no criminal indictments. Here are a few key phrases:
What to make of this sad, sad stack of docs? There is no question that Daniel Rocha had been a troubled kid and was making some poor choices in the first weeks of his adult life. He was very likely engaged in illegal activity of a not very unusual kind on the night he was killed. He was involving himself in petty drug dealing. From the testimony of friends and teachers, Daniel was a spirited character with an outlaw edge.
The record shows that he was also doing things that anyone would call cops to stop, such as burglary or theft. But on the night of his death was he engaging in the kind of behavior that justified a killing? If he was no role model, he was also no monster, and no stack of previous behaviors attributed to him would warrant anything near a summary execution–not even in Texas.
In this case, it appears from the evidence released by the grand jury that Officer Schroeder displayed a pattern of poor judgment in her impulsive decision to make the traffic stop and in her life or death determination to detain Rocha right then and there. Reports from her partner and her boss indicate that they were not quite prepared in advance for the ‘take down’ when she abruptly initiated it.
The inability of Schroeder and her boss to contain Rocha even when double teaming him indicates that the ground was poorly chosen for this action. From the time Officer Schroeder threw her car into reverse, the tone for this tragedy was set. It is difficult to imagine that good cops would find this a worthy pattern of action.
The expert report from Oklahoma indicates that the probable position of Daniel Rocha at the time of shooting was on one or two knees or bent over, with Officer Schroeder at arm’s length to his left. In other words, the probable positions confirm Officer Schroeder’s statement, that Rocha was not fighting her at the time of the shooting.
Schroeder’s claim that Rocha was doing something more than trying to get away from her boss seems incredible when compared to her boss’ statement that he was hanging onto Rocha’s foot. So there is no question that Daniel Rocha was playing with fire in his gangsta attitude, but there is also an expectation that cops are trained to deal with such cases in ways that do not escalate into on-the-spot executions. I think that’s why they are called peace officers. To kids, especially teenage males, we have to suggest better things, but then again, we have to be pretty careful that we not pretend to have offered Daniel a well-chosen world to work with. When I think of the comment that he had a slight learning disability, then I can see how he was following the wrong crowd, he just wasn’t so quick as the one who first jumped the fence. A slight learning disability is all it would take for that moment of hesitation, then that moment of tragic motivation to follow his friend over the fence.
Did Officer Schroeder raise a gun to that first escapee? No, she called him by name, just to let him know that she knew who he was and where to find him another day. He climbed a tree, waited, and lived to hear the shot. What was so different about Daniel that night?
I don’t know if the Police Association intends to come off this way, but in their public comments about this mess, they seem to indicate that any resistance to police may very well justify deadly force. In other words, they want absolute authority in this life. If this is the message that the grand jury was trying to send–‘obey or die’–then the grand jury has run too far into police state mentality. Everyone has a role to play in breaking cycles of unfairness. Unfortunately, in these docs one finds too many trails of continuing evasion.
Dear Friends:
This message is sent to family members and friends
to provide an update on the medical status of my husband,
Ramsey Muniz. In a previous message I stated that he had
shown improvement, but since that time he has again become
ill. His abdomen area has filled with bile. He has
infection which is accompanied by fever. Tomorrow
morning (Monday, September 19) Ramsey will undergo surgery
which will give doctors a new opportunity to fix the
source of his illness. We welcome everyone’s prayers,
and ask God that Ramsey be granted a long awaited recovery.
Thursday, September 8: Ramsey undergoes an ERCP procedure for
the 3rd time. The doctor removes two stents previously inserted, and
replaces them with a larger one. He expresses confidence that this will
solve the problem. When I visit with Ramsey, he is heavily sedated.
Friday, September 9: For the first time Ramsey has eaten an entire cup of cream of wheat. Under the circumstances, this is
tremendous progress. His face alone reflects improved health.
Saturday, September 10: Early in the morning Ramsey has
problems breathing and he is given oxygen. In the morning he is taken
to walk because of the long amount of time that he has spent in bed. I
visit with him later and he is very weak. He hardly speaks. Because he
has remained in a lying position for so long, he has developed a very
painful bed sore.
Sunday, September 11: Ramsey’s abdomen is again filled with
fluid. He forces himself to walk , in an effort to rid himself of the
fluid. His liver enzymes are down, which is positive.
Monday, September 12: Ramsey is taken for another paracentesis
procedure to drain around the stomach area. They remove about
2 1/2 liters of what appears to be bile. They attempt to do
hemodialysis, but his catheter is clogged, so dialysis is postponed,
and they instead repair the catheter.
Tuesday, September 13: Ramsey is given hemodialysis again, as
his kidneys need to improve. It seems that the antibiotics are
effective, as his white blood cell count is lowering.
The physician has ordered a consultation with a surgeon to
determine if surgery will help.
Wednesday, September 14: Ramsey begins to eat solid food,
though he remains very ill. His stomach has again filled with bile, but
the amount seems less. The doctor does not want to resort to surgery,
and instead wants to wait to see if the fluid can be fought through the
body’s normal functions. He feels that the stent is just taking longer
to be effective.
Thursday, September 15: I called the nurse’s station at 5:45
AM for an update on Ramsey’s status. He has not been feeling well and
his stomach is bloated but he is sitting up in a chair, in an attempt
to fight the illness through mobility. His body is extremely tired.
Friday, September 16: I visit with Ramsey and he remains
very weak. I do everything possible to impart faith, spirituality,
hope, and strength. He has been told that surgery has been scheduled on
Monday morning or during the noon hour.
Saturday, September 17: Ramsey remains very weak.
Sunday, September 18: Ramsey remains very weak. We welcome
prayers from family members and friends, and ask God that Ramsey be
granted a long awaited recovery.
Our sincerest gratitude goes to all who have expressed
compassion, love, and concern, and more importantly to
those who have said prayers on behalf of my husband.
Irma Muniz
Received via email Sept. 18
Alex Jones is usually up to something interesting and usually (as he
says) he has a good nose for standing on the side of civil liberties
(and sometimes civil rights). But on Saturday he spent his day
protesting the Diez y Seis de Septiembre march and rally in
Austin. Alex Jones is never without his reasons, but this time
(as with his sometime characterization of civil rights orgs as racist)
his instinct for confronting unjust power has wavered somewhat.
Now Mr. Jones finds himself policing the observance of the Mexican
equivalent of the Fourth of July, telling folks just how revolutionary
they should or should not be. Just to be clear, I’d like to pose a
question to Mr. Jones. If anyone had been arrested for their speech
Saturday, would you be defending their right to speak or the state’s
right to bust them? Mr. Jones takes special exception to t-shirts that commemorated the
Plan of San Diego, a 90-year-old scheme to rid the land of
Gringos–just as Father Hidalgo, in his legendary Grito de Dolores of
Sept. 16, 1810, once called for the arrest or removal of all Spaniards
from Mexico. Mr. Jones is horrified that the Plan of San Diego actually
motivated some killing 90 years ago. And that’s fine. I’m a pacifist
myself. No killing please. But what’s really interesting is how from
all the history available to him, Mr. Jones would be most scandalized
by the Plan of San Diego. As if, in the killing fields of Tejas, the
Plan of San Diego were the bloodiest exercise of power ever seen to
erupt from the barrel of a gun.
We recommend Mr. Jones revisit the Autobiography of Malcolm X
in
order to help him keep his balance when faced with outrageous claims
that white folks should some day suffer the very forms of power that
white folks have wielded these past forty three presidents and
counting. Which reminds me, the sooner Mr. Jones returns to his
valuable work on the trail of Bush 43rd and cronies, the better.–gm
MoPress 