Texas Rangers still investigating La Joya shootout, but some details emerge. Read more and watch the attached video below about the multi-agency responce to the LaJoya, Texas standoff. Law enforcement personal from multiple agencies gather around a vehicle during a standoff with a capitol murder suspect Tuesday in La Joya. Two Edinburg Police officers were wounded after a gunfight with Joaquin Cibrian, who is a suspect in a capitol murder investigation. Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said the suspect is presumed dead during a press conference tonight. Thursday, July 24, 2014 2:11 pm LA JOYA — The investigation into a Tuesday night shootout that left one capital murder suspect dead and hospitalized two Edinburg police officers continued for a full day Wednesday. One of the wounded officers, a 14-year veteran of the department shot once in the arm Tuesday, left the hospital for home and a paid leave from duty, pending medical approval to return to work. The other, a 10-year officer who suffered three gunshot wounds, remained in the hospital Wednesday evening, but was expected to recover. “Hes going to survive,” Edinburg Police Chief Rolando Castañeda said. “But hes hurt. Citing department policy, Castañeda declined to name the two officers. Texas Rangers took over as the head investigators in the case. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Sgt. Johnny Hernandez declined to answer questions or provide a statement Wednesday, answering an interview request with a text message that read: “Not at this time other Texas Rangers still investigating the incident.” But some details of the hours-long standoff emerged from other sources. Between the dead suspect, 29-year-old Joaquin Cibrian, and law enforcement, investigators estimate 500-600 rounds of ammunition were fired, said Geovani Hernandez, the La Joya police chief. “That was the most violent incident that Ive been involved with in the past 25 years,” said Juan Gonzalez, the chief of police in San Juan. Castañeda rebuffed the claim that the incident began when Edinburg officers attempted to arrest Cibrian — who they said was a confirmed member of the Texas Syndicate gang — on the capital murder warrant. Instead, he said, the six-officer team only responded to a call from La Joya police that a Jeep with license plates matching those of the vehicle Cibrian was last seen in was in the area. “The call was a car matching the description,” he said. “It was nothing about executing an arrest warrant.” By one account — of many that continued to circulate Wednesday — Cibrian’s girlfriend was driving the SUV. When officers approached her, Cibrian began firing from inside the house. “I think they were approaching the vehicle because the girlfriend was driving,” Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said, emphasizing that he did not have firsthand knowledge of those particular course of events and that he’d also heard other narratives. “And then they got ambushed from inside.” However the shooting started, two officers were shot. And one sheriff’s deputy pulled the officer hit in the arm out of the line of fire, fell on top of him, and injured his own rib, Guerra said. “He was able to throw a tourniquet kit to the Edinburg officer who was hit to stop the bleeding,” he said. Edinburg police did not return fire, nor were they among the officers who fired fatal shots into the house later, Castañeda said. “They got shot and we did a rescue after that,” he said. Hernandez and Guerra discredited the report that gunfire erupted at another location away from the house at one point during the standoff. “What happened was there was a lot of confusion because he was shooting at the armored vehicle and those shots were ricocheting and whizzing by people who were not in the line of fire, so their first instinct was that they were taking fire from another direction,” Guerra said. “We only had one shooter and that shooter will no longer be a threat to the La Joya community.” But authorities also prepared for the possibility of reinforcements arriving to back up Cibrian. “La Joya PD had extra officers patrolling the outer perimeter,” Guerra said. “We beefed up security because he was a member of a very dangerous prison gang.” Cibrian’s involvement with the Texas Syndicate linked him to the Gulf Cartel — the prison gang works with Mexican organized crime groups — increasing the risk he posed, at least in Gonzalez’ eyes. “Weve been getting some (intelligence) on him,” Gonzalez said. “He was posting a lot of social media stuff, he was involved in some kind of cartel organization.” But a former lawyer of Cibrian’s painted a different picture of the man Edinburg police said killed 19-year-old Gerardo Omar Melendez Verdin last week with a gunshot to the back of the head. “I don’t know what happened but the Joaquin Cibrian who I interacted with was a hardworking man who helped his two young daughters and I was very, very sad to hear what happened,” said Sandra Eastman, a Corpus Christi attorney who defended Cibrian in a Refugio County trial for possession of a small amount of marijuana. A county court at law judge sentenced him to deferred adjudication in that case in March 2013. At the time, Cibrian was working as an equipment operator for the City of Alice. And Eastman said her client left an impression as a loving father. “All that I can say is that he was very hardworking, he was very proud of his job. He loved his daughters very much,” she said. “I feel for him and his family and everyone involved.” Gonzalez said he expected similar incidents to happen more frequently in the future. “I strongly feel that this is a new type of threat that were seeing, that were going to start seeing more often,” he said. Social media would amplify the “copycat” phenomenon, he added. “Youre going to have copycats out there,” the San Juan chief said. “They think by doing stuff like this theyre going to get more glory or more respect.” youtube/watch?v=KrzVqU7qpcs
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 00:30:12 +0000
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