ABSTRACT
A first-hand account by community activist, Ernesto Vigil, documenting the wrongful death of Mexican immigrant, Ismael Mena, at the hands of the Denver Police and the cover-up that ensued. Colorado officials launched a drug raid in September 1999, which resulted in the death of the 45-year-old father of nine, who was shot to death by masked SWAT officers who broke down his door in the middle of the night. The officers, who had obtained a fatally flawed, no-knock warrant based on a tip from an informant who claimed there were drug dealers in the house, later said they shot Mena after he pointed a gun at them and fired. No drugs or evidence of drug dealing were found in Mena’s house, and an autopsy revealed no drugs in his body.
