Lawyers release MBI file in police shooting case
Attorneys on both sides rally forces after Ismael Lopez death
Lawyers for the family of slain auto mechanic Ismael Lopez have released hundreds of pages of investigative documents related to his 2017 fatal shooting by a police officer at his home in Southaven.
A grand jury has already declined to file charges in the case, in which officers went to the wrong house during a search for a domestic violence suspect. Federal authorities opened a civil rights case but decided not to move forward.
But with a civil lawsuit looming against the officers and the Southaven Police Department, attorneys for both sides are using information in the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation report to support their interpretation of events.
Two Southaven police officers fired shots in the fa-
tal encounter, and a lawyer defending them highlights MBI documents that say Lopez had a criminal record and had been deported to Mexico more than once.
The lawyer, Tony Farese, points to federal law that says immigrants living in the United States illegally cannot possess weapons.
He said Lopez provoked the shooting by answering the door with a gun and pointing it at officers.
“Bottom line is, it’s a justified shooting,” Farese said. “DA’S looked at it. FBI’S looked at it. When people knock at your door and you point a gun at uniformed police officers — that’s not the way I go to the door.”
Three bullets through front door
Lawyers for the Lopez family acknowledge a .22-caliber rifle was found near the door, but they dispute that the mechanic pointed it, saying his body was found some distance away inside the mobile home.
They maintain one Southaven officer heard another officer shoot at the family dog, prompting the first officer to open fire at the house through a closed door. Lawyer Aaron Neglia called it a “murder,” while his partner Murray Wells raised the possibility of an accidental shooting by a young officer.
They point to forensic data in the MBI report that says three bullets passed through the home’s front door and one hit Lopez in the back of the head, killing him.
Investigators concluded the door was open about 1 1⁄4 inches when one bullet passed through, and that it was open about 3 inches when another bullet went through. MBI investigators concluded they weren’t sure about the fatal shot.
“It is unknown if the door was open or closed when the projectile passed through it and struck the victim in the base of his skull, ” the report says.
“I have very serious questions about the investigative techniques by the police department immediately following the shooting,” Wells said.
“And I have very serious questions about whether this is an accidental shooting and a coverup, and that the gun was conveniently used as part of coverup to explain why a relatively young officer went blazing through a closed door.”
Until this point, officials in Mississippi had refused to officially acknowledge some details about the shooting, including the officers’ names. Those names and other details are finally confirmed in the MBI report, which lawyers went to court to obtain.
Officer Samuel Maze, who reportedly shot at the dog, had graduated from the police academy only about 20 months before the July 24, 2017 shooting, according to the MBI records. Officer Zachary Durden, whom investigators concluded fired the fatal shot, had graduated only about 16 months earlier, according to records. A third officer on the scene didn’t fire. The documents add far more detail to the public understanding of the shooting, which triggered national media attention and protests.
Lawyer for police points to Lopez’s criminal record, deportations
Farese, an attorney who works with the Southern States Police Benevolent Association, points to a background check section of the MBI report that says Lopez had a criminal record from the late 1990s in Washington state on charges of domestic violence and driving under the influence.
Lopez had been previously deported to Mexico more than once, most recently in 2013, and somehow returned, according to the MBI records.
“This man was breaking the law. He’s habitually broken the law,” Farese said.
Farese said fear of another deportation might have motivated Lopez to act aggressively toward officers.
Wells said Lopez’s criminal charges and immigration status are irrelevant. He pointed to other police reports in the MBI file. The documents say Lopez had contacted police to complain about thefts, and in one case just months before the shooting, to report the death of a neighbor.
“They’d been to his house several times,” Wells said. “They didn’t have any concerns about it when he was the victim. And clearly, he wasn’t on their radar. They were going to (the domestic violence suspect’s) house. So any background he had is irrelevant to whether or not he deserved to die in the middle of the night behind a closed door.”
Police accounts are included in file
Farese said he was present when MBI investigators interviewed the police officers who fired shots, and their transcribed statements are included in the file.
Their statements confirm they were out at night looking for the home of Samuel Pearman, a domestic violence suspect, but the home was actually across the street. After some confusion, the officers approached the Lopez home with guns drawn.
“Even though we were all convinced that this was (the suspect’s address), I figured if it was the wrong address, whoever answered the door would tell us it was the wrong address and be able to point us in the right direction of the correct address,” Durden said.
According to the officers’ statements, Durden knocked loudly on the door. The lights that illuminated the front of the house went out, and footsteps indicated someone was coming to the door, the officers said. Durden described using the light on his handgun to illuminate the front door, and seeing a man inside aiming a rifle at him. Durden said he started shouting “Put the gun down!”
“I then heard a gunshot but I did not know where the gunshot came from,” Durden said in the statement contained in the records.
Another officer at the scene, Maze, said he had fired at an aggressive pit bull that ran out of the open door and lunged at him. Then the other officer, Durden, fired shots at the house.
Maze’s account recalls the chaotic moments after the shooting, with Lopez’s wife screaming.
Maze said Durden insisted on going into the home to help the man he had shot. “There was blood and brain matter on the floor surrounding the suspect,” Maze said. He described Lopez taking labored breaths.
Officers would end up handcuffing an unconscious Lopez as well as his wife, Claudia Linares, according to the officers’ statements. Records say they called for an ambulance immediately, but it was too late.
Linares was brought to a police station and gave a statement written in Spanish.
She said she and her husband were asleep in bed when they heard noises and the dog barking. “He got up quickly and I heard voices,” she wrote. “And I went to the window and saw a lot of patrol cars and police walking. Then I heard shots and I was startled. And I said they were police officers.”
She said she went to the living room and the door was open. “And my husband was down on the floor and I spoke to him but he didn’t respond. I began to ask them for help and my dog was running in circles. I put him in my room.”
She said officers told her to come outside and they put her in handcuffs, and that she kept saying to the officers that her husband was on the floor.
She finished her statement by writing, “That’s all I remember at the moment. It all happened very fast.”
The MBI investigators concluded the investigative report by putting the blame on Lopez.
“This shooting occurred while the Southaven Police Officers were attempting to locate Samuel Pearman of (Surrey Lane), Southaven, MS, who was wanted for aggravated assault in Tate County,” the report says.
“The officers arrived at (a nearby address on Surrey Lane), Southaven and encountered Ismael Lopez, who pointed a loaded rifle toward Officer Durden after officers knocked at his door, which led to the shooting death.”
Secrecy, unanswered questions and no video
Even after a grand jury declined to file criminal charges in the case, officials in Mississippi refused to release the MBI file and other records to The Commercial Appeal.
But Ed Autry, a lawyer for the Lopez family estate, went to court to get the MBI file and prevailed. The Wells law firm released the MBI file to media outlets in advance of a Thursday news conference.
The MBI documents even contain veterinary records for the family dog Coco, who was grazed by at least one bullet during the encounter, and reveal that Coco bit a staffer during the veterinary examination.
Yet for all the small details in the documents, they leave many questions unanswered.
Eyewitness accounts of any traumatic event often contain errors. Videos of many police shootings have revealed big discrepancies between the accounts of officers and eyewitnesses and what the cameras showed. And in this case, there was no dashboard camera or body camera video available.
Lawyers for the family say they plan to file a lawsuit against the officers and the city of Southaven in the next few weeks.