The mother of a 29-year-old man shot and killed by an Edinburg police officer earlier this year hired an attorney who filed a petition to investigate potential claims against the city.
The petition, filed on behalf of Sandra Diaz by attorney Mauro F. Ruiz on March 3, asks for court-ordered depositions in the Jan. 11 killing of Jesse Daniel Davila.
According to Edinburg police, Officer Alex Cruz responded to an apartment at 1709 Orlando St. around 5:49 a.m. for an assault-in-progress against a woman. Police say Davila aggressively lunged at Cruz and ignored commands to stop.
“The suspect continued lunging toward the officer closing the gap between them placing the officer in fear for his safety. The officer defended the attack by discharging his firearm toward the suspect and stopping the threat,” a custodial death report stated.
That report, however, doesn’t say whether Davila was armed, and in a section dedicated to whether he was armed, Edinburg police marked “unknown.”
According to Diaz’s petition, her son was not armed.
“At all times material, Mr. Davila was not armed. At some point, Officer Cruz shot and killed Mr. Davila. Other than hearsay contained in local newspaper stories, Ms. Diaz wishes to know why Officer Cruz and the City of Edinburg used deadly force to subdue her son when he was unarmed,” the petition stated.
According to the custodial death report, Davila “sustained multiple gunshot wounds.”
Police described the assault as a domestic disturbance.
“On arrival Officer Cruz could hear female screams coning (sic) from within the apartment. Officer Cruz entered the apartment through the unlocked front door and made his way toward a bedroom where he observed the screaming female laying on her back on a mattress on the floor and the suspect on top of her holding her down with both hands,” the custodial death report said.
The narrative in that report says Davila stood up after Cruz yelled repeated commands at Davila to show his hands and came toward Cruz, prompting the officer to push him back away from him and down to the floor, giving the woman and her children a few seconds to escape.
It’s not clear how long the fatal encounter lasted, but police said that’s when Davila got back up and lunged at Cruz before the shooting.
In the petition, Diaz said taking depositions are necessary so her attorney can explore potential claims of excessive use of deadly force on the state and federal levels.
“As part of the subject matter, Petitioner seeks to investigate (1) the facts supporting the decision to detain and seize Mr. Davila; (2) Officer Cruz’s deadly force training; and (3) the City of Edinburg’s policies regarding the use of deadly force at the time of the incident,” the petition stated.
The attorney also wants to examine the city’s liability insurance policies.
Those sought for depositions include Cruz, Police Chief Cesar Torres, a municipal representative with knowledge of deadly force policies and a deadly force trainer for the city.
“It is necessary to depose said individuals, and to examine the documents sought to be produced, inasmuch as Petitioner has no other way of establishing any right he may have under Texas or federal law to pursue potential litigation against Respondents,” the petition stated.
As of press time Wednesday, a hearing had not been scheduled.
