Latino Group Condemns Scott Shooting & Calls for Charges in #PascoShooting

Apr 9, 2015
3:15 PM

The recent news about the shooting death of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, has Latino leaders in Pasco, Washington, wondering why the Pasco Police Department has yet to act on the February shooting of Antonio Zambrano Montes, whose death at the hands of officers was also caught on video.

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In a release to local Washington media yesterday, Consejo Latino leader Felix Vargas wrote the following:

The shooting of an unarmed African-American man on Saturday is almost a duplicate copy of the Pasco police shooting of Antonio Zambrano on February 10. Walter Scott was fleeing when white police officer Michael Slager drew his weapon and fired eight rounds, fatally wounding Mr. Scott. In Zambrano’s case, 17 shots were fired, of which between six and eight struck him. Another similarity: Mr. Scott’s killing was captured graphically on a cellphone video.

Consejo Latino condemns this latest incident of police-involved shooting, which constitutes excessive use of force and which was absolutely unnecessary. To the city’s credit, it has quickly filed formal murder charges against the policeman, who has been fired and who now sits in jail. The city cited the irrefutable evidence of the video. A state agency is following up with an investigation.

This should be a lesson to the city of Pasco, which could have similarly requested that Franklin County charge the three policemen who killed Mr. Zambrano. Pasco passed up on an opportunity to do the right thing.

The latest reports from Pasco indicate a stalling pattern in the investigation, and that any attempts for a special prosecutor have not been carried through.

Meanwhile, a new Facebook page, called Official Justice 4 Antonio Zambrano-Montes, is organizing rallies this weekend in Pasco to call more attention to the case.

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The organizers are “a collective group of student leaders from M.E.Ch.A. and Washington Dream Act Coalition who are working towards justice for Antonio Zambrano-Montes,” according to the Facebook page.