Courtroom recall
Trial outlines night man told police: ‘Kill me’
A 26-year-old man who claimed he was drunk, suicidal and trying to get the police to kill him the night he fired a gun north of Summer Avenue near Holmes was found not guilty of most of the charges against him Thursday, but convicted of three lesser charges.
Misael Chica-Arguenta was charged with firing at Memphis police around 10 p.m. Sept. 24, 2014.
“I was drunk and depressed,” he testified through an interpreter.
Jurors considered five counts of attempted firstdegree murder and five counts of using a weapon in the incident. The jury convicted him of three counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter and acquitted him of the seven other charges.
On the night of the incident, two officers in an unmarked blue Dodge Durango were stopped at a stop sign at the corner of Lyndale Avenue and
Hudson when three shots rang out. One bullet came through the windshield.
After the vehicle was struck, officers called for assistance and Chica-Arguenta was seen holding a gun. He was ordered to drop his weapon, but instead he pointed the gun to his head and at the officers, telling them to kill him, according to an affidavit.
He fired one shot at the off icers, said Assista nt District Attorney Glenda Adams. He attempted to shoot a second time, but the gun malfunctioned.
Police opened fire on Chica-Arguenta and he was struck multiple times. He survived.
Adams told the jury Chica-Arguenta had “no regard for human life that night.”
“He was intending to cause a death out there, not just his own,” Adams said.
Chica-Arguenta testified he did not intend to kill anyone except himself that night, while Assistant District Attorney Tyler Parks questioned how he could have intended “suicide by cop” when he fired at an unmarked car.
“That was not an accident,” Parks said. “That was not a mistake. That was an intentional action.”
When the bullet stuck the Durango, Chica-Arguenta’s attorney, Micah Gates, argued Chica-Ar- guenta did not know the officers were there. The jury found him not guilty of attempting to kill those two officers.
And after back-up arrived, Gates said ChicaArguenta pointed the gun off to the side and toward the ground to the “safest place” he could have fired in order to provoke the officers, not to try to kill them.
Chica-Arg uenta had been urging the officers “kill me,” “why don’t you kill me?” and “why haven’t you shot me yet?” Gates said.
“This was a suicide by cop,” Gates said.
Chica-Arguenta will be sentenced March 10, said Criminal Court Judge Bobby Carter.