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Oxnard pays $6.7 million to settle to police gunning of innocent man

June 12, 2014

crime scene tapeThe city of Oxnard will pay $6.7 million to the family of an innocent man police shot repeatedly and killed in October 2012. [KEYT]

Alfonso Limon was walking home with his brother from a workout at a local high school on the night of Oct 13, 2012 when Oxnard police officers mistook them for suspects they were chasing from a violent traffic stop. The officers opened fire, and Limon suffered 16 to 21 bullet wounds, according to his attorney.

Limon’s brother escaped and survived. He said the officers never addressed them verbally before shooting.

The $6.7 million settlement in the largest Oxnard has paid in a wrongful death case.

Following the shooting, the Oxnard Police Department has instituted new protocols that include requiring officers to wear body-mounted cameras and audio recorders.

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office is still reviewing the case and will soon release its findings.


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Just came from a workout? I wonder if they were wearing dark hoodies (October night could be cold) and sneakers, baggy jeans hanging around their butts, etc…?


I can’t imagine police shooting this kid 21 times. That’s not a mistake, that’s a colossal F-up!


Q: Why’d you run? A: Because you were shooting at me!

Q: Why’d you shoot at me? A: Because you ran!


I’d say the City of Oxnard got off cheap at $6.7 million, which its insurance carfrier probably paid anyway.


I’d like to see a follow up when the Ventura Sheriff’s release their report.


Hopefully, this kid will get justice. How much did the kid who wasn’t killed get? Or is his lawsuit still in court?


He’s incredibly lucky to have escaped.


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All of you jumping on me are basing your outrage on an article that quotes the surviving brother and his attorney? Good lord! I hope none of you ever sit on a jury.


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You could be right about your doubts but I am inclined to think otherwise. Why? Because it has happened elsewhere and too often. It could be that my perception that such actions are becoming too frequent is merely because the internet has made exposure of such actions more frequent. Even if so, it is about time that we deal with it whether it is just a continuation of a bad old trend or an acceleration of it.


Dual standards of justice should not exist. If they do, cops should be held to a higher standard of behavior as they are supposedly better trained in what the law allows. In many cases they are much better paid than those they tend to focus their abuse upon too.


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PS I don’t know if you are an LEO or not. I would REALLY like to hear a rational explanation why good cops (and I agree they are the majority) don’t turn on those in their ranks that are routinely abusive. I am sure that there is some peer pressure involved but, in the long run, isn’t it better to have a community that largely trusts the police to be on their side?


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Any thought to banning police from carrying guns?


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You will easily get the criminal element’s vote on that, I’m sure!


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16 to 21 bullet wounds is intentional homicide, and should be prosecuted as such.


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No kidding? So if ONE bullet was fired and killed him it would be unintentional homicide? You are a couple of cartridges short of a full magazine, that’s for sure.


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One errant or mistaken bullet that is fired, much less wounding or killing is grounds for an IAD investigation.

16 to 21 rounds fired that hit is not just murder…it’s an assassination.


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This IS a terrible tragedy, but I guarantee you the cops did not just open fire as they saw the two guys walking down the street. The brothers probably made some sort of suspicious movement, intentionally or unintentionally and got nailed. Tragedy yes. Cops running around shooting unarmed people without intentional or unintentional provocation? No.


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These trigger-happy thugs should be spending hard time in prison.


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I’m sure the police union protected them from any responsiility


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You can’t guarantee”, seems that is exactly what happened. Mistook them for the bad guys. Did not stop and question. What kind of “suspicious movement” can someone just walking down the street possibly commit? The cops provocation was their excitement over the violent traffic stop. The cops got excited and failed to handle the situation properly. Very tragic for everyone involved. No mention of what happened to the cops. Back to basic training?


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How about being fired???


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Wishful thinking! (And I think that you know it.)


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When cops have been assaulted/resisted/etc., some of them tend to stop thinking and just let their emotions control their behavior. Do you remember the two women in LA whose pickup was perforated with bullets because some cops thought it might belong to their renegade former colleague, Christopher Dorner?


I don’t know if people like this get into law enforcement because of poor psychological profiling or whether they are trained to be this way at the academy or on the job. But it needs to be addressed whether it is just the same as it has always been or whether it is not just a media fabrication that it has become worse recently.


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Don’t all California police and Highway Patrol have dashboard cameras? If so, then why aren’t incidents like this shown on the T.V. series known as “Cops?” I guess for obvious reasons.


A terrible story that no amount of monatary gain will help ealleviate.


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I believe that the requirements for dash cameras are local not statewide. If Oxnard didn’t previously require (and fund) them, they didn’t have them.


While they are helpful in proving the truth about incidences like this, they aren’t enough. They may not show the whole picture or even the most important parts of it. Having the cops wear body-mounted cameras and audio recorders is much better.


However, as an incident with the SLOPD a few years back showed, there needs to be some sort of policy that punishes officers whose recording devices are conveniently “off” or “not working” in cases where there is a claim of official misconduct. Otherwise, bad cops can still avoid serious consequences for their abuses.


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What is a violent traffic stop?


What ashame someone lost their life because the police just opened fire on them without giving them the chance to stop and be questioned. Did the police not get a good look at the clothing the person was wearing when they ran?


Did the person they kill have a gun pointing in their direction? Something seems awful fishy with this story.


sorry the family of the deceased had to go through such an ordeal because of gun happy police.


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