Misty Holt-Singh, 41, had just run into the Stockton, California bank and left her 12-her-old daughter in the car for a quick transaction. In an instant, her life would change as Gilbert Renteria Jr., Jaime Ramos, and Alex Martinez came in to rob the bank. They took Singh hostage and fled in a car. However, the police were quickly on their tail and trapped the car. She may have had a glimmer of hope. After all, there were some 33 police officers surrounding the car. That is when the Stockton police opened up on the car and fired over 600 bullets — killing Holt-Singh, 41, and two of the bank robbers. The family is preparing to sue and saying that the response was excessive and ignored the hostage. Singh was hit 10 times — all from the guns of the police.
The bank robbers had taken Holt-Singh clearly as a human shield and led the police on a high-speed car chase in a car stolen from a bank employee. Witnesses say that Holt-Singh was crying and saying that her daughter was in the car and that she did not want her daughter to be traumatized by seeing her with the robbers. The three robbers could care less, of course.
Two other female hostages were thrown from the car. Holt-Singh was not so lucky.
In the car was Alex Gregory Martinez, 27, Gilbert Renteria Jr. (right), 30, and Jaime Ramos, 19. Ramos (left), a member of the Nortenos street gang, would be the only one to survive.
Martinez (right) had robbed the very same bank just six months earlier. The police say that the men had fired from the car windows and an AK-47 was shown next to the car. Police say that the men fired 100 bullets. They responded with reportedly over 600, though the specific number has yet to be confirmed. What is notable is that 20 officers have been put on leave as a standard procedure in an investigation for officers who discharged their weapons. Police insist that they were concerned that other hostages could be taken or that the men could enter a business or a school. It is not clear if the men were on the move to justify such a fear and, if so, how Holt-Singh was shot. The accounts say that she and the men were shot in the car, which presumably was trapped and had had the tire blown out.
However, the family has raised questions similar to the Montesano case that we discussed earlier. The family is seeking more evidence in the case. The public is also entitled to know more about an incident where hundreds of rounds were fired by police into a car with at least one hostage. However, if as reported Ramos used her as a human shield. This does not necessarily mean that the shooting was unjustified but this is a case where total transparency should be the rule.
Many of these rounds were fired during the hour long chase that extended to 55 miles. The police fired a reported 600 bullets into the car that had originally a number of hostages and clearly had at least one remaining.
Jaime Ramos will now be charged with murder. While it was the police who killed Holt-Singh, he is criminally responsible for the death under a felony-murder theory.
Kudos: Michael Blott
wow, I thought this pathetic thread was dead, this was the one when Mespo was calling me Paranoid Schizophrenic. lol 🙂
Max-1
At least in Renos day,there was an option to come out with your hands up. Ferguson shows that option no longer exists.
Joe – since witnesses at the scene place Brown’s hands and arms in the police car and there is a contact gun wound on his fingers, I think Michael Brown had a chance. His accomplice seems to have kept his hands on the hood of the vehicle and stayed alive.
@ rafflaw
“The hostage complicates the situation”
I’d say it CHANGES the situation, to one of protection over apprehension or neutralization.
Statistically in America today, you are 8 times more likely to be killed by police than anybody else. so we would be better off without them. I would prefer anarchy over tyranny myself at least it would be a level playing field.
@mespo 727272
You must be a cop, don’t they teach you to say “come out with your hands up” anymore, guess I’m living in the past, seems more like “shoot first to eliminate all witnesses” is the mode of operation in today’s fascist America. Those cops are all murderers and should get the death penalty, but that is reserved for mostly non white citizenry who cant afford lawyers in this fascist hell hole. Just don’t expect anything different if ever your wife’s in the same situation, and by the way the robbers did not actually kill anyone as far as reported and are only guilty of armed robbery and reckless endangerment and not murder.
Two issues here, one is the question of excessive force (disproportionate amount of force) and the other still remains the negligent application of justifiable force (failure to distinguish). These fact patterns are so, so fact sensitive…..
Why shoot at the car, shoot the tires. Never understand that.
The press leaves facts out, like being black, etc. Were these Hispanics illegal? Why so many cops (33)? Does the mass number of cops equate to overkill? Why did only 20 of the 33 police fire? Does only 1/3 of the police have brains?
If cops don’t have any responsibility for their actions, the public needs to make laws for them to be responsible.
What if the hostage had been a police officer?
Would the police still have unleashed a fusillade of 600 rounds into the vehicle?
This type of police response is directly related to poorly trained/supervised adrenaline junkie cowboys posing as police officers while on patrol who have zero worries about being held accountable for their actions.
Funny how many have such a strong opinion about things they nothing about. Unless you’ve been on the other side of the barrel with hundreds of 7.62’s flying in your direction at 2300fps, you should sit this one out. You really couldn’t understand the frame of mind you need to be in. You all assume things by what you read on blogs, see on the news, and by others who have the same amount of knowledge about these subjects as you. Unless you’re with the crime scene unit on the scene itself, you won’t know what could have been.
And as for the “valueless money”, would you not call the police if 3 armed men barged into your house with your wife and kids, and just left with a battery-less cable remote?
“Oh well, it’s just a cable remote without batteries. No need to call the cops.” Or, “Hmm, let’s just let them go with a hostage. I’m sure they will let her go ‘alive’ someday. They seem like honest men that care about human life. Those hundred or so shots were their way of saying hello”
By all means, I’m not defending anyone in this situation. But I’m sure that the officers were thinking about the greater good and the least amount of casualties. I know it’s hard for some of you to believe, but that’s not what officers think about doing every morning when they wake up. Let’s wait for the evidence. Evidence meaning, testimonies, videos, audio recordings, AND eye witnesses. Not just hearsay.
Question .. What was more valuable – the woman held hostage or the stolen bank money?
NS says: “I have dealt w/ savages, sociopaths who would slit your throat and sit down and eat a ham sandwich.”
How did you manage to survive those ordeals?
BTW — savages are psychopaths, not sociopaths.
Amazing how so many want to blame anyone but the a-hole “gangstas”.
“Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse.” (Henry IV)
Dredd – I will ask you again. How many Shakespeare plays have you actually read? There are lots of crib sites to get these quotes from and we could do them all day but they just eat up space. Try having an original thought.
Is the law acting as an incentive for the police to shoot civilians?
the cop tried to pull him into the car, Michael resisted going through the window, cop shot him. The blood in the car supports Johnson’s account. Cop shot Michael. Unless the cops are lying, which would be more consistent with their behaviors so far.
Thanks, Max. I agree. There were enough cops to have him surrounded, He was unlikely to kill the hostage and, with patience, he might have surrendered. Or a sniper could have been put in position for a good shot. I like John Oliver’s take: take their (LE) toys away from them until they can prove that they know how to play safely.
A couple of great graphics, including a list of people killed by LE
http://www.october22.org/
The October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation has been mobilizing every year since 1966 for a National Day of Protest on October 22, bringing together those under the gun and those not under the gun as a powerful voice to expose the epidemic of police brutality.
bettykath – did you see that they found Michael Brown’s blood in the cop car?
Dubbed, the Janet Reno force… where if you don’t come out with your hands up, we’re gonna burn the babies!
18.1818 rounds per officer fired…
… Ok, who reloaded?
Max-1 – It looks like pretty much everyone reloaded at least once. Janet Reno is sending them a Thank You card as we speak.