Questions surround shooting

The Pima County Regional SWAT team fired 71 rounds in seven seconds, all without stepping a foot inside the home on Tucson's southwest side, officials said. Officers were serving a search warrant on Guereña, 26, May 5. Guereña had just gone to sleep after working a graveyard shift at the Asarco Mission mine at about 9:30 a.m. when his wife woke him up and said there was a man outside her window, Guereña's wife, Vanessa, said. She thought he was breaking into their home so her husband grabbed an AR-15 military style rifle and told her and their 4-year-old son to hide in a closet, she said. A second son was at school.

The Sheriff's Department will not release any information until its investigation is complete.

Vanessa Guereña and her family have asked the department for answers on what they say is an unjustified shooting.

"I never imagined I would lose him like that, he was badly injured but I never thought he could be killed by police after he served his country," she said.

Initial reports said Guereña had fired at at the deputies but the Sheriff's Department retracted their statement days later, saying the safety on the rifle was on the whole time and Guereña did not fire his weapon.

Vanessa Guereña said her husband was trying to protect her and her son from a home invasion and that he never would have shot if he knew it was police.

Vanessa Guereña called 911 from another room after the shooting and pleaded with operators for more than five minutes to send medical help.

Often through tears and sometimes in broken English Vanessa Guereña pleaded with the operator to send an ambulance, revealed in audio released by the Drexel Heights Fire Department.

"Please send me an ambulance and you can ask more questions later, please!" she said.

None of the medically trained SWAT officers went inside to render aid and it took about an hour after the 911 call for medical personnel to be allowed inside, but by then Guereña was already dead.

Lt. Michael O'Connor, from the Sheriff's Department said the SWAT team arrived with lights and sirens and screamed "Police!" in English and in Spanish for about 15 seconds before breaking down the door.

O'Connor said the house was one of four houses to be searched that morning in connection with a narcotics investigation.

The search warrant and court documents showing what deputies were looking for and seized from Guereña's home have been sealed by a judge and are unavailable to the public. But Michael Storie, an attorney representing the five SWAT officers involved in the shooting, said two weeks after the shooting that deputies seized rifles, handguns, body armor, and part of a law enforcement uniform from the home in the 7100 block of S. Redwater Dr., near West Valencia Road and South Wade Road.

None of those things are illegal to own, Storie said, "but they indicated Guereña's involvement with a home invasion crew."

Storie also said a portrait of Jesus Malverde, known as the patron saint of drug dealers, was found under Guereña's bed. Vanessa Guereña denies having that portrait at home.

Christopher Scileppi, who is representing the Guereña family said, Storie's version of what happened during the raid is unsupported by facts and that until the Sheriff's Department releases all of the records on the investigation he would not to comment on the details. He said Guereña was a hard-working Iraq War veteran father of two who was not involved in illegal activities.

Guereña's online background check does not show any prior criminal history and Master Sgt. Leo Verdugo, his direct supervisor during his two tours to Iraq, said he was and "excellent Marine with a bright future ahead of him."

Guereña was a Tucson native and Flowing Wells High School graduate. He joined the U.S. Marines in 2002. He served two tours in Iraq in 2003 and 2005 as part of the Yuma-based unit under direct supervision of Verdugo.

Contact reporter Fernanda Echavarri at fechavarri@azstarnet.com or 573-4224.