Jose Guerena

Guerena had been arrested in January 2009 after being involved in a traffic stop with two other individuals where a gun and a small amount of marijuana were found, but was not charged.

In the affidavit filed to support the search warrant, Pima Detective Alex Tisch had claimed that Guerena had "five felony arrests involving drugs" but no convictions.

Guerena's widow states that she had no knowledge that the man she saw pointing a gun at her through the window was a police officer, and thought that he was part of a home invasion group.

She has stated that two members of her sister-in-law's family were killed previously in a home invasion.

Jose Guerena was a U.S. Marine veteran who served in the Iraq War and who was killed in his Tucson, Arizona, home on May 5, 2011, by the Pima County Sheriff's Department SWAT team.

Deputies were executing a warrant to search Guerena's home while investigating a case involving marijuana being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.

The shooting garnered national attention and generated significant debate on the subject of the militarization of police in conjunction with the following facts in the case: After the shooting, no evidence of illegal activity nor any illegal items were found at Guerena's residence; Guerena's wife and 4-year-old child were hiding within the home from whom they thought were intruders when deputies opened fire with a salvo of 71 rounds; Guerena's weapon was found with its safety still engaged; Guerena's prior military service and lack of any criminal record; Inconsistencies in statements given by officials describing what had transpired at the scene.

In September 2013, the four police agencies involved agreed to pay Guerena's wife and children $3.4 million as a settlement, without admitting wrongdoing in their killing of Guerena.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department initially said the raid was part of a drug investigation.

Days later, they provided details that it was part of an investigation into a series of home invasions and drug rip-offs.

Another home searched that same morning revealed marijuana, $94,000, and several weapons.

According to legal documents, the Guerena home was among several homes that were identified as locations where these illegal activities were being carried out from.

The search warrant was to gather evidence of these activities.

According to police reports, Alejandro Guerena pulled up to the house in a pick-up truck while the raid was going on, and police found a pistol in his truck, which might have led to a heavier firearm presence when raiding Jose's home.

Asleep after returning from a 12-hour overnight shift at the ASARCO Mission mine, Guerena was awakened about 9:30a.m. by his wife who heard noises outside their house, later identified as flash/bang grenades deployed by police in the back yard as a diversion.

He instructed his wife and 4-year-old son to hide inside a closet while he grabbed his AR-15 rifle and crouched down preparing to defend himself from the unidentified people breaking into his home.

The Sheriff's Department initially claimed that Guerena had fired on officers; at least three of the SWAT members including the team commander reported in their post-operation debriefings that they had observed muzzle flashes aimed at them from inside the house.

After an examination of Guerena's rifle however, it was determined that the rifle had not been fired; the safety was still engaged.

Other officers claimed they saw splinters from the doorjamb being hit by bullets; the shots that caused this were determined to come from other members of the SWAT team themselves.

"There were five officers at the door beginning to make entry into this home, when they engaged this individual that they believed was actually firing at them."

Other versions of this story claim that officers started shooting after Guerena pointed the gun at them, though under questioning they were initially unsure whether he had actually moved to target them.

A video of the raid shows roughly 38 seconds expired from the time the police briefly sounded a siren upon pulling into Guerena's driveway until they shot him.

At this point the five person team fired at least 71 rounds at Guerena in less than seven seconds, who died after being hit 22 times.

Guerena's wife called 911 to request medical assistance for her husband shortly after the shooting.

Paramedics, however, were instructed to hold back per standard procedure in shootings.

Guerena was denied attention, for about one hour, until the team declared the "area secured".

Ambulance crews were then notified they were no longer needed, one hour and fourteen minutes after Guerena's wife's call to 911.

An official autopsy report was released on 6 June.

It confirmed that Guerena had been shot 22 times, including one grazing shot to the head.

No drugs were found in his system.

The medical examiner expressed doubts that medics could have saved Guerena, even if they had reached him quickly.

The report also notes that the body showed "no evidence of medical intervention".

The former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Anthony Schiessl was asked to review a video from the raid.

Schiessl has seven years of experience as an Army Combat Engineer, including three deployments to Iraq.

Schiessl said the raid was "amateur, undisciplined, unrehearsed and ineffective."

He was then asked if Guerena could have known they were cops raiding the house, he replied "Not plausible at all. The short siren burst could have been a police car passing. The flash bang grenades being used next door would have added to the confusion. When looking out a sunlit doorway from a dark hallway, it is difficult to see anything but a silhouette. Add in several people yelling, and it would be extremely difficult to comprehend what is happening if you're woken from sleep."

While officers did not find any evidence of drug trafficking, they did find multiple weapons including one AR-15, one .38 handgun, body armor, and a US Border Patrol hat.

They also found a portrait of Jesus Malverde, commonly known as a "narco saint" under Guerena's bed.

Three other houses and a storage unit rented by his relatives were searched as part of the same investigation, in which police discovered weapons, a bag of marijuana, a stolen vehicle, and accounting ledgers allegedly related to marijuana trafficking operations.

A computer search revealed Guerena had no history of criminal convictions.