I don’t know the details, or Nacho’s state of mind. I do know that the official version in the paper and the tv news does not correspond exactly to witnesses who were there – who were remarkably consistent in their description of the event. Inside the San Diego Tribune today a headline read, “Knife-wielding man fatally shot by police” (SD Union-Tribune, Tuesday August 4, 2009, B3). The article began, “Police yesterday shot and killed a man who grabbed a steak knife from a Gaslamp Quarter restaurant, tried to rob a second eatery, and then charged two officers who confronted him, officials said. . . . San Diego police Capt. Jim Collins said the man put down a backpack he was wearing, brandished the knife, and advanced toward to officers. ‘The Officers retreated and told the suspect to drop the knife or he would be shot,’ Collins said. “The suspect said several expletives to the officers and started to charge them with the knife raised over his headed.’ . . . . ‘When an officer’s life is threatened, deadly force is obviously authorized,’ Collins said.”

The account from those who live downtown agreed in basic outline of the events, but without the self-justification of the police. First, two persons independently described the shooting as an execution. Three shots were fired – two to the heart; one in the middle of the forehead. The shooting took place at close range. One friend described this as a training technique for security forces when they shoot to kill. Whenever one hears three shots, one knows that it is two to the heart; one to the forehead. The shooting was a type of police execution. The police were from a gang unit, according a Channel 5/69 news report. Obviously they have been trained for execution-type shootings. Second, the account of the events immediately preceding the killing differed. Witnesses heard the police say, “Don’t move or we’ll shoot” and then, immediately the three shots. According to those on the streets, the knife was not brandished; he had no backpack; it was even suggested that the noise of the area made it difficult for Nacho to hear the officers. It was agreed that Nacho did not “charge” the police but was walking towards them when he was shot. All agreed that Nacho was not acting well; no one defended his behavior. Yet no one took seriously the claim that the officer’s lives were threatened; the loss of life with its brutal execution-style implementation, made those who live downtown feel doubly vulnerable – from the violence of the streets and from the reactionary violence of the police.

Life is fragile. Violence abounds in the world, mortal violence. It is not easy being the police; it is even harder living without housing or income. Which rumors are true, which ones are not is hard to tell. But a restaurant steak knife, from a table, will always lose in a duel with police weaponry. To use such a knife to kill would take special training, and probably some sort of surprise attack. To shoot a person twice in the heart and once in the forehead takes special training as well – and the person walking toward you with hands to the side, up or down.

I pray for the police officer who shot Nacho – he has to live with the scars of this killing; I pray for Nacho and for his friends and family – Nachos life in this world is gone. And I pray for those on the streets who find themselves caught often between multiple sources of violence as they carve out their lives without adequate housing.

Lord, have mercy.