The Cameraman: Jose Luis Valdes, 39

The used-car salesman, who fled Cuba for the United States in the early 1993, was in bed in his Chino home on the night of Jan. 29, 2006 when he heard a car crash across the street from his home. After seeing an officer standing with his gun drawn next to the crashed car, Valdes grabbed his Sony digital zoom camera and began filming. Later that night he invited sheriff’s detectives into his house to watch the recording of the shooting and turned over the footage investigators. Shortly after the incident, Valdes was taken into custody while renewing his immigrant registration card in Pomona. Immigration officials discovered he had outstanding warrants for in Florida aggravated. One aggravated assault charge was dropped later that spring. In the week Valdes was scheduled to go to trial in August of 2006, Florida prosecutors dropped the second aggravated assault charges stemming for an 1997 incident in which Valdes allegedly pointed a gun at a man during an argument. He plead guilty to a misdemeanor of disorderly conduct, but the details of his plea agreement were sealed, according to the Associated Press.