A Siskiyou County, California district lawyer introduced on June 14 that 4 cops will be cleared of charges after taking pictures and killing a person who drove a truck stuffed with hashish by a wildfire checkpoint.
However over the previous 12 months, witnesses and cops supplied conflicting stories about what occurred that day, which concerned an Asian American employee.
In June final 12 months, lightning ignited the devastating Lava Hearth, and amid the chaos, issues unraveled once they pulled over a person driving a truck with over 100 kilos of hashish inside.
Officers have been directing a line of automobiles leaving the world to flee the torrent of flames. Soobleej Kaub Hawj, 35, of Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, was driving a pickup truck that was loaded with 132 kilos of hashish. He was most probably working for one of many many unlawful greenhouses within the space. He additionally had firearms within the truck.
Police say that Hawj ignored orders to show west onto County Highway A-12, a major highway at a checkpoint on June 24, 2021 as a hearth ravaged a rural Massive Springs space close to the California-Oregon border, District Lawyer Kirk Andrus stated.
Officers say he panicked, fired a spherical at one of many officers, then they returned hearth and shot him within the head, chest, arms, and legs. The police say they discovered a loaded .45 caliber Colt 1911 handgun on Hawj’s lap. Different assault rifles have been discovered later.
Nevertheless witnesses say over 60 photographs have been fired on the sufferer and that sprint cam footage wasn’t launched. The incident led to nationwide outcry over suspicions a few potential anti-Asian American hate crime with the #StopAsianHate hashtag.
Officers tried to clear their names. The Sacramento Bee reports that District Lawyer Kirk Andrus despatched out a nine-page letter Tuesday that outlined his findings to the officers’ supervisors on the Sheriff’s Workplace on the Etna Police Division and the California Division of Fish and Wildlife.
In his letter, Andrus stated the point of the checkpoint wasn’t to find cannabis however merely to get individuals out of the world earlier than it was engulfed by flames. Hawj, nevertheless, might have thought he can be stopped and searched, Andrus stated.
“He had a money crop behind his truck that he apparently was keen to defend,” Andrus wrote. “He might have had the misapprehension that residents have been being funneled into an space the place they’d be looked for marijuana. He would have been flawed.”
Police say Hawj additionally had an arrest warrant in Mesa County, Colorado, on a hashish and gun-related cost.
Siskiyou County already banned large-scale hashish cultivation, however as of final 12 months estimated there have been 5,000 to six,000 unlawful greenhouses rising weed within the Massive Springs space.
Locals within the Massive Springs space say the farms usually contain immigrant staff of Hmong and Chinese language descent. Due to the renewed focus because of the case of Hawj, The Daily Beast profiled “the embattled Hmong group in Northern California” that usually find yourself trimming or working in hashish fields.
Not everybody was shopping for the police story, which is what led to the investigation within the first place. The Southeast Asia Useful resource Motion heart launched a joint statement with Hmong Innovating Politics final August when the case was nonetheless recent.
“One witness stated over 60 photographs have been fired at Hawj throughout the incident,” the organizations wrote. “In response, Zurg Xiong held an 18 day starvation strike pushing for the discharge of physique and sprint digital camera footage from the taking pictures and an impartial investigation from a special company. On July 21, Oakland Metropolis Councilmember Sheng Thao, Elk Grove College Board Trustee Sean Yang, Sanger Unified Board President Brandon Vang, and Sacramento Metropolis Council Member Maiv Yaj Vaj despatched a letter to California Lawyer Common Rob Bonta requesting an impartial investigation into Hawj’s demise.”
“The taking pictures is the results of escalating racial discrimination in opposition to the Hmong and Asian American group in Siskiyou County, CA. In 2016, a number of incidents of voter suppression in opposition to Hmong residents by the Siskiyou Sheriff’s Workplace have been reported. Extra not too long ago, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors enacted water ordinances focused at Hmong and Asian American farmers whereas being aggressively and disproportionately enforced by the Sheriff’s Workplace.”
You possibly can learn the letter in its entirety to California Lawyer Common Rob Bonta. Additionally, try the petition to assist Soobleej Kaub Hawj’s household, which ended up receiving over 14,000 signatures.
In the meanwhile, it seems the officers are off the hook and won’t face any legal expenses within the matter.