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Activists say man shot by Raleigh police was mentally ill, call for officer to be fired

News & Observer - 6/10/2022

Activists called on Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson on Friday to fire an officer they say provoked and escalated a fatal confrontation with a man who was throwing Molotov cocktails outside a police station.

Master Officer P.W. Coates should be fired, said Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC, during a news conference outside the Southeast District station, where Reuel Rodriguez-Nunez was killed after he threw cups of flammable liquid at officers.

"If there are no real consequences to people's actions, then their actions don't change," Blagrove said. "Why in the world should Raleigh be paying for an officer who chose to abuse the trust that he was given, by killing a man who was in a mental health crisis?"

Patterson has said Rodriguez-Nunez disregarded repeated commands to stop throwing the incendiary weapons, and after he threw one toward an officer, four officers at the scene fired 30 rounds at him.

"Where's the accountability for the officers that bullied this man having a mental health crisis?" asked Emancipate NC activist Kerwin Pittman at the news conference.

"Individuals were de-escalating the situation, but yet he chose to escalate the situation and essentially provoke and bully somebody having a mental health crisis," Pittman continued. "But the end result was this man losing his life, when it could have been prevented because there was time and space that the initial officers were taking to de-escalate the situation."

Also at the news conference was Jasiel Rodriguez-Nunez, Reuel's older brother.

"This is a very hard time for me and my family and this did not have to end like this," Jasiel Rodriguez-Nunez said. "My brother ... was just sending a message of his mental illness. It was a way of speaking out in his mind. He was having a breakdown."

Reuel had been jailed in 2021 and had problems there that lengthened his sentence, his brother said.He was having "a tough time" after being released in September last year, he said.

Security footage shows it took roughly 15 minutes for an officer to arrive at the parking lot after Rodriguez-Nunez had pulled up, stepped out of a van and thrown a jar of urine and feces at the entrance of the police station.

He proceeded to retrieve and light cups of flammable liquid to burn two parked vehicles nearby.

"This was completely a case of someone in a mental health crisis," argued Toshiba Rice, who identified herself as a mental health expert at the news conference.

"Evidence of pulling into a police station with no body armor, and using urine and feces as an offense was the first indicator that it was a mental health crisis, as well as Mr. Nunez's body language, his actions for targeting property of objects to destroy and complete nonverbal presentation," she said.

Emancipate NC demands

Blagrove read out the demands of Emancipate NC, which included:

Firing Coates

Revoking his law enforcement certification

Removing his pay while he is placed on administrative leave as the case is investigated by police and the State Bureau of Investigation

The city should invest in a "mobile crisis response team external of law enforcement," for Raleigh police's ACORNS unit to respond to "any possible for calls for service of someone in mental distress or having a mental health crisis," according to Emancipate NC's demands.

It also wants every officer in the department to undergo de-escalation, crisis intervention and character training.

Each of the officers is being investigated to determine if there were any "breaches in policy," Lt. Jason Borneo of the Raleigh Police Department said in an email.

What police footage showed

Security and body camera footage documented the deadly encounter -- including that of an officer, identified as Coates, shouting, "Go ahead (expletive) do it."

One officer who arrives asks Rodriguez-Nunez, "What's going on, man?" What's going on?" He has not drawn his weapon and shrugs as he speaks.

Rodriguez-Nunez can be heard responding, "Today ... is my day to move on."

The same officer says, "Calm down brother, you don't have to do this."

Coates, wearing body camera 3 in the city's video release, is closest to Rodriguez-Nunez, with his gun drawn.

"Do it! Do it! Go a-(expletive)-head. Go right (expletive) ahead. Go ahead (expletive). Do it! Do it!" he shouts.

A different officer says "put your hands up" as the officer on body camera 3 continues to say "do it!"

"Give me the go ahead," Coates is heard saying.

Multiple officers order Rodriguez-Nunez to drop the Molotov cocktails, the footage shows.

"Take your hands out of your (expletive) pockets!" Coates shouts, along with "Don't do it (expletive), I'm done with you!"

Patterson's report, issued five days after the fatal shooting, states burning liquid hit the ground where Coates had been standing, "narrowly missing him only because he moved out of the way."

Daniel Turcios shooting

Emancipate NC has now called twice for greater police accountability after two fatal shootings of men by Raleigh officers this year.

In January, 43-year-old Daniel Turcios was fatally shot by police after he appeared to swing a knife at an officer in the aftermath of a wreck on the side of Interstate 440.

Emancipate NC later joined his family in calling prosecutors to file criminal charges against two officers who tased and shot Turcios.

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