|
 The Feb. 10 killing, about 24 hours after the Mexican immigrant's
release, sparked outrage in a Latino majority community that has
likened his death to police slayings of unarmed black men in
Missouri and New York.
Zambrano-Montes' death sparked protests by demonstrators who
complain Pasco police were too quick to use lethal force in their
fourth slaying in seven months, in an agricultural city with about
68,000 residents.
A coroner's inquest is to begin in May, after which a prosecutor
will decide whether to bring charges against the officers. His
family and civil rights groups are calling for a federal probe.
Like many migrant workers, Zambrano-Montes arrived in Washington
state's apple-growing belt seeking opportunity about a decade ago,
but his life swiftly crumbled after a series of personal tragedies
and drug use.
"He had a hard time, he certainly needed help," said Eduardo Baca
Cuenca, the Seattle-based Mexican consul.
Zambrano-Montes, who a police spokesman said ignored orders to
surrender before he was tasered and then shot and "clearly committed
a felony" by throwing rocks at officers, immigrated with his wife
from a village in Mexico's Michoacan state, a family lawyer said.
"He was talkative, always cheerful. If you were down he would try to
cheer you up as much as he could," said 19-year-old former neighbor
Bertha Coria.
One of 16 children, Zambrano-Montes liked to joke and took pride in
his hardscrabble work at Columbia River basin orchards, and in
sending money home to his parents and two younger siblings,
relatives said.
But he also had a darker side that nine years ago prompted his wife
to leave and bar him from his two daughters, accusing him of abuse,
according to a 2006 protection order petition.
DARKER SIDE
That year in Pasco, Zambrano-Montes angrily accused his wife, Teresa
Meraz Ruiz, of infidelity and repeatedly slapped her, bloodying her
nose. It was not the first time he was accused of violence.
"In '99, he pointed a gun at me while I was lying on the floor after
he had physically abused me," Ruiz wrote in the petition. "I was
pregnant with our eldest daughter at the time."
Ruiz later took their daughters to Northern California, where she
works at a dairy farm, her lawyer said.
While the separation sent him into bouts of depression,
Zambrano-Montes toiled as a seasonal laborer for years afterward
until he tumbled off an orchard ladder and broke his wrists sometime
last fall, Ruiz's lawyer said.
[to top of second column] |
"In the agricultural area, in general, conditions are hard," Baca
Cuenca said. "Housing, transportation, the safety net, there are
challenges there."
Compounding his woes, Zambrano-Montes spoke little English and
battled mental illness, said Felix Vargas, chairman of advocacy
group Consejo Latino. The Pasco area hosts bilingual government and
church counseling and aid programs.
"He was looking for help from the family," his uncle Jose Zambrano
said. "He also didn't know if there was some state program for
people with serious problems like him."
Weeks after he broke his wrists, an out-of-work Zambrano-Montes
nearly died in a January fire in a converted garage where he was
living that destroyed most of his possessions.
Pulled from the garage by public works employees, he later told
investigators he had lit a cigarette off the stove and thought a
towel caught fire. He used crystal meth the night before, a Pasco
Fire Department report said.
"He was making illogical statements, such as someone was trying to
kill him, and showing signs of paranoia," the report said.
After the fire, Zambrano-Montes spent time in a homeless shelter and
relatives' homes. Then, three days before his death, he was arrested
and held for two days for failing to appear at a hearing and pay
fines and fees linked to his assault conviction, court documents
show.
"He was nice but he was depressed," said Eugene Hernandez, a tree
pruner staying at the shelter. "He told me straight up, he brought
his wife to America but his wife left him. He told me he wanted to
die."
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Pasco, Washington; Additional
reporting by Dan Wallis in Denver and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City;
Editing by Richard Chang)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
