What About My Child Who Was Killed By Police?

Sammy Martinez attended the May 13 peace rally in support of her friend, Valerie Rivera. Both mothers lost their sons following encounters with the police. Setting aside whether they had criminal records and drug addictions, neither were armed and both cases show how ill- equipped police officers are in addressing individuals experiencing mental health crises.  

On June 6, 2017, Eric Rivera, 20, was shot and run over by Harbor Division police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, 11 seconds after encountering him on Wilmington Boulevard, near Pacific Coast Highway. It was later found that Rivera only had a water gun.

A pedestrian heard Rivera saying to himself in Spanish “He’s gonna pay me today!”  while openly carrying a gun with no attempt to conceal it. Fearing that Rivera posed an imminent threat, he reported him to the police. Three squad cars arrived within minutes.  

According to a fact-finding report released by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office a year later, Rivera entered the Jack in the Box restaurant, walked directly to the soda fountain machine and began to throw ice in the restaurant. An employee at the restaurant reported that Rivera was talking to himself while holding a green plastic toy water gun. Rivera filled the toy gun with water and soda and sprayed the contents throughout the restaurant.  According to the employee, during the ten minutes he was in the restaurant, Rivera talked to himself and appeared “stressed … mad … anxious.” The employee believed he was under the influence of an illegal substance because of his behavior. The employee asked Rivera to leave.  Rivera complied with the request after arguing with the employee. He left walking southbound along Wilmington boulevard. Fifteen minutes later, Rivera was killed by police.

Ernie Serrano, 33, died in police custody at a Jurupa Valley grocery store in December 2020 where he spent hours erratically coming and going, at times attempting to make purchases with his identification card. An armed security guard approached Serrano, then a fight quickly ensued. 

In the aftermath of Serrano’s death, Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco said Serrano was reaching for the security guard’s gun when deputies arrived.

Bianco said encounters with Serrano began on the evening of Dec. 14, when the suspect’s family called 911 complaining that he was “not acting rationally, and was out of control.’”

Deputies went to the residence and found Serrano, who had several prior convictions in Los Angeles and Orange counties, including for assault on a peace officer, “belligerent, aggressive and displaying obvious signs of being under the influence,” the sheriff said.

“Deputies used a taser to force Mr. Serrano to comply,” Bianco said. “He was treated at a local hospital and taken to the Robert Presley Detention Center.”

Serrano was booked on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance and felony obstructing a peace officer. However, because the county correctional system was operating under court-mandated capacity limitations due to the coronavirus public health emergency, Serrano was released on his own recognizance the following morning.

That evening, he went to the market, and for the next “two to three hours” floated in and out of the store, exhibiting bizarre behavior, “cutting in front of people in the shopping aisles” and on several occasions trying to buy goods by offering his driver’s license as a payment device, the sheriff said.

Bianco said deputies used non-lethal measures such as baton strikes and tasering. After subduing Serrano, deputies placed a spit hood over his head because he was spitting out the blood flowing into his mouth from a gash over his eye.

A deputy who was involved in the prior day’s arrest reportedly noted that when he and his partner took Serrano to a hospital for a pre-booking medical examination, “his heart rate was like 190.”

Store surveillance video shows deputies held Serrano on the checkout counter for about seven or eight minutes, repeatedly asking him to calm down. However, he abruptly went silent and limp, at which point a corporal yelled, “He’s stopped breathing.”

Serrano was laid on the floor, where deputies removed the handcuffs and mask, initiating chest compressions for Cal Fire paramedics, who had been staging outside the store. They tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead a short time later at Riverside Community Hospital.

Sheriff Bianco said that Serrano died from acute methamphetamine intoxication with fatal arrhythmia, a condition in which the heart beats with an irregular or abnormal rhythm.

Neither case should have been death sentences for Serrano or Rivera and their families.