Slaying by Inglewood Police Triggers Rare Latino Protest

Inglewood’s Latino community, which has been almost invisible in the city’s political life, emerged into the spotlight this week, protesting the death of a businessman’s son shot by police April 5 after a two-hour chase.

After the funeral of 23-year-old Javier Arreola Monday, about 150 friends and family members marched outside Inglewood City Hall, calling for justice and accusing the police of mistreating Latinos.

On Wednesday, Inglewood Police Chief Raymond Johnson emphatically rejected protesters’ allegations that racism played a role in Arreola’s death.

Johnson said officers had no idea what Arreola’s ethnicity was before the shooting.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Johnson said. “The officers had no way of knowing who or what he was. And it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. That’s foolish.”

A predominantly Latino demonstration is a rare event in Inglewood. Latinos have generally kept a low profile in the city, where the power structure is dominated by blacks and whites. Latinos rarely attend City Council and school board meetings and have no elected representatives, although they constitute 30% of the city’s population and about 44% of the school district’s population.

But two days before the Arreola shooting, Jose Fernandez, an aide to state Sen. Cecil Green (D-Norwalk), outpolled four other candidates in the District 3 City Council election April 4 to qualify for a June runoff against Bruce Smith.

The Latino community is “waking up,” Fernandez said Tuesday. “I’m sure this has stirred up a lot of emotions. They feel they want to be included in the system. They want their opinions taken into consideration, like everybody else.”

Of Arreola’s death, Fernandez said: “It’s a total tragedy for everyone. For the officers, for the family, for the city.”

In an interview Tuesday, Arreola’s father, Lennox bakery owner Francisco Arreola, disagreed with statements by other relatives and family friends accusing the police of anti-Latino bias. But he denounced the police for his son’s death, which he called “a crime.”

This week, Arreola’s family retained Inglewood attorney Harold Sullivan, who said he is preparing a lawsuit against the Inglewood police. Sullivan said an independent autopsy commissioned by the family this weekend showed that Arreola was shot four times in the back and the back of the head at a range of about three feet with a .357 Magnum. He questioned the necessity of shooting the unarmed man and questioned the police versions of how and why the shooting took place.

“I believe the police overreacted,” Sullivan said. “I believe the officer who shot him became too emotionally involved. We know from police psychologists that people become angered in a chase situation. I think (Arreola) was cowering behind the wheel. How many times do we hear police say ‘He reached for a weapon’. . . . I don’t understand why he was shot four times in the back.”

D.A. Investigating

As in all officer-involved shootings, the Los Angeles County district attorney is investigating, along with the Inglewood Police Department. The Los Angeles Police Department is also investigating because the incident took place in its jurisdiction. The investigations should be complete within the month, Johnson said.

The early morning shooting took place on the Santa Monica Freeway near La Brea after officers shot out Arreola’s tires. Police say officers fired after Arreola ignored commands to surrender, backed up his van toward the officers and ducked under the dashboard as if reaching for a weapon. No weapon was discovered in the van. Officers said they found almost two ounces of cocaine and added that Arreola’s mouth and nose were smeared with the drug.

Johnson said Arreola ignored commands to surrender in both Spanish and English during the chase and after he came to a stop. He said officers fired from the back and sides of the van after Arreola started to back the van toward them and ducked down in the front seat.

Johnson said he did not know whether the independent autopsy’s report that the shots that killed Arreola were fired from a distance of three feet is accurate.

“He had adequate time to surrender,” Johnson said. “He did not respond to orders. We don’t like it, we don’t relish the loss of a life. But it started with him, not with us.”

The 100-mile chase from Inglewood to Riverside County and back to West Los Angeles began when Arreola fled from police cars responding to a midnight call from a guard at an Inglewood construction site. Police said the guard reported that Arreola’s van had been circling the site and that a hole had been made in a fence.

Arreola had a list of construction materials in the van that he needed for a market he planned to open in Inglewood. Family members say police told them that Arreola probably intended to rob the construction site, although police have not said a theft occurred.

Attorney Sullivan said Wednesday that Latinos in Inglewood feel that the police discriminate against them.

“It’s common knowledge in the community that the police come down harder on Hispanics than other groups,” Sullivan said. Latinos “have generally been very pacific, but they feel wronged in this case. They feel too much force was used.”

Inglewood Police Sgt. Harold Moret said the department does not discriminate against anyone.

“We consider ourselves a caring, compassionate department,” he said.

The vehemence of the protest comes partly because the dead man was the son of a prominent businessman. Francisco Arreola owns the Arreola bakery, a fixture on the bustling Inglewood Avenue corridor in Lennox, and has been working to increase Latino political presence in the Inglewood area.

At the urging of Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent, Arreola and Inglewood businessman Jose Marrero formed the Inglewood-Lennox Latin American Chamber of Commerce last year. Arreola was involved in several City Council campaigns during last week’s election, supporting candidates including Fernandez; the bakery van in which Javier Arreola died bore signs promoting Fernandez’s candidacy.

Arreola said in an interview Tuesday that he disagreed with charges that racism was an element in the shooting, saying demonstrators made those statements in the heat of emotion. But he called for a full investigation of his son’s shooting.

“I want to know why they killed him,” Arreola said in Spanish. “The law applies to everyone, including the police. I want to know the truth about what happened.”

Arreola is a husky, stolid man who remains more comfortable speaking Spanish than English 22 years after he arrived in the United States from Mexico. He worked in a factory for seven years, then opened the family bakery where Javier, one of seven children and the elder of two sons, worked along with other relatives.

Arreola considers himself a loving but tough father. He admits that Javier succumbed to drugs and other bad influences as a youth attending Lennox schools. Arreola himself called police and had his son arrested in 1986 when he discovered that Javier had stolen money from the family business.

Javier served six months in jail.

Since then, Francisco Arreola said, he and his son had reconciled, and Javier was building a new life. Along with an uncle, Javier was preparing to open a mini-mart on Arbor Vitae in Inglewood.

‘Wasn’t Violent’

“He worked at my side at the bakery,” Arreola said. “He had been married for two and a half years with two children. He was excited about the new business. He wasn’t violent or aggressive. He didn’t own a weapon.”

On Tuesday, Arreola attended the Inglewood City Council meeting with Marrero, the head of the Latin American Chamber of Commerce. Unlike Monday, there were no angry words or picket signs. Javier Arreola’s father stood silent at the speaker’s podium next to Marrero, who addressed the council on his behalf.

“All we want is justice,” Marrero said. “Too many questions have to be answered on how this happened. We request a complete inquiry and investigation, and we request that the results be made public.”