Thread: Deputy who fired at illegal immigrants returns from prison

Oct. 16, 2007, 10:22AM
Deputy who fired at illegal immigrants returns from prison


By JOHN MacCORMACK
San Antonio Express-News


ROCKSPRINGS — When he left home late last year for a jail cell, Gilmer Hernandez was a little-known rural Texas deputy charged with shooting into a carload of undocumented immigrants during a late-night stop.

By the time he returned Monday after 10 months behind bars, Hernandez had become a national symbol in the bitter debate over immigration.

But Monday afternoon, the issue was very distant when Hernandez walked into his living room with his wife, Ashley, on his arm for the first time in almost a year.

"I'm home," he said, giving his father-in-law, Jose Arredondo, a long hug. He then gingerly held his 1-year-old daughter Alektra, who predictably squawked in protest.

"I'm still the same guy. I'm not going to let this bring me down," Hernandez said.

A little bit later, downtown Rocksprings became a welcome-home carnival as more than 350 people — some flashing colorful signs and posters — crowded around the front of the school, blocking traffic, waiting to pay their respects to a local guy who had once taught as a substitute there.

"Rocksprings has been looking forward to this for a long, long time," said Tooter Smith, a photographer for the local Mohair Weekly. "Like the signs say, Gilmer is free and a favorite son has come home."

One of the first to meet him outside the school was his old boss, Edwards County Sheriff Don Letsinger, who had suffered along with Hernandez during the federal investigation and trial.

"I told him I loved him and I'm proud of him," said the sheriff. "He stood up for what he believed in."

Hernandez, 26, cannot serve in law enforcement again because of the conviction, and plans to work locally for the phone company. But he had no second thoughts about how he reacted on April 14, 2005, the day his life changed.

" It happened in a split second. I was in fear of my life. I did what I was trained to do," he said.

It all began with a traffic stop after Hernandez spotted a dark Suburban running a downtown stop sign in his hometown. Rocksprings falls on a main smuggling route from the border, and after dark, unpredictable strangers often pass through.

The car Hernandez stopped was full of people, and when he attempted to speak to the driver, he said the vehicle abruptly pulled away, trying to run over him.

Hernandez fired four to six times at the fleeing vehicle, blowing out a tire but hitting the back of the Suburban several times, and slightly wounding a female passenger.

When the vehicle stopped a short way up the road, all the occupants but the woman fled. Two of the undocumented immigrants would later sue the county over the shooting and be awarded $100,000 each.

Hernandez, however, was charged with violating the wounded woman's civil rights. He was tried in federal court in Del Rio and convicted, despite his claims of acting in self-defense.

"I had been offered six months probation but I wouldn't take the plea bargain. They wanted me to change my report about what happened," he said. "The conviction felt unreal. I couldn't believe the verdict."

But, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Baumann said last year, "The law says you cannot use deadly force to stop a car unless it poses an imminent threat to the officer or another person. If the car is going away from you, it's not even a close call."

Hernandez, along with Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, both U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an unarmed Mexican drug smuggler, quickly became celebrated figures in the national immigration debate.

Hernandez could have been sentenced to nine years, but instead got a year with time off for good behavior. He tracked the immigration debate as best he could from his cells in Texas, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

"I felt like I was being used by all the politicians as an example. And they were right to use me," he said.

Hernandez and his wife both say they will continue to speak out on the immigration issue.

jmaccormack@express-news.net

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 17985.html

"I felt like I was being used by all the politicians as an example. And they were right to use me," he said.

I am so glad that he is out of prison now. It makes me so mad for a law abiding person, doing their job, being made a political example out of.

It makes you wonder just how deep politicians are in the pockets of pro immigrant groups, etc.

God Bless him. Let's vote in a president who will pardon him so he can work in law enforcement again. I am proud and thankful for men like him, Ramos, Compean and Noe.

They all need to be fully pardoned and compensated for what the devils George Bush and Johnny Sutton did to them and their families!

Does anyone remember the phrase " Stop or I'll shoot" Whatever happened to the law as we once knew it? If you ran away from a policeman (no matter which freakin direction) you took your chances of being shot at! And you didn't sue for damages!!!!!

I am so happy for him and so glad he had a wonderful welcome home, that is the American way!! he is a hero!


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one down

THREE TO GO

heres another story about it

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=87004