David Martinez, a Mongol, was arrested after a middle of the night Swat raid on his home on October 28, 2014. The next day he was charged with shooting a Swat officer named Shaun Diamond in the back of the head. It was a very widely publicized incident. The aftermath has been mostly ignored.
Martinez was in his living room, standing behind his father, when Diamond was shot. Diamond had just battered the home’s front door in and was standing on the front porch. The raid on the Martinez home was one of seven simultaneous search warrant services. The warrants were served by Swat, presumably, because breaking into the home of a Mongol at four in the morning was considered more dangerous than having a couple of detective’s knock on a front door at breakfast time.
The raid epitomized the nutty, “guerilla street theater” nature of the continuing war on outlaw motorcycle clubs and their members. The raid was unnecessarily dramatic.
Sorry
Diamond was wearing military style armor, including a military helmet and he was fatally wounded by a shot from behind and below him. According to sources The Aging Rebel considers reliable, another Swat officer exclaimed, “I’m so sorry man! I’m so sorry man! I’m so sorry man,” immediately after Diamond was shot.
A year later, another Swat officer named Richard Aguiar testified that after Diamond was shot, Martinez exclaimed, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I thought you were the Mongols.”
Diamnond died the day after he was shot and Martinez was charged with first degree murder. Most media outlets in Southern California proclaimed the area to be shocked and grief stricken. Diamond’s career was widely celebrated and Martinez was just as widely vilified as a gangster and a cop killer.
