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My Son is
Not an Animal
Despite Beating His Girlfriend
By Daniel Muniz
It always amazes me when parents stick up for their irresponsible
offspring. In a twisted sort of way, many of these people simply
cannot believe the hideous acts that their own children are capable
of committing even though nearly all of them will admit to
experiencing either a violent or troubled past.
But what galls me the most is when such parents actually vouch for
the character of their brood. And that is even despite years of
being a troublemaker; somehow these parents still expect the best
out of them while overlooking their abhorrent behavior. Below is
such an example:
"They didn't have to shoot him. They're trained. They should have"
subdued him, said Josephine Mendez, Cervantes' mother. "He wasn't an
animal. He was my son."
Source: Express-News for all quotes.
So your son is not an animal. Let’s examine the events that led up
to your son being shot and killed by a police officer.
Late in the evening John Henry Cervantes, 26, was arguing with his
girlfriend, Samantha Rivera. For whatever reason, he steps outside
of the house and then picks up a brick to smash the back window of
his girlfriend’s car. Next, he smacks a side window of the same car
with his bare hand. The glass shatters and his mangled hand is now
drenched in blood.
Did Cervantes’s mother ever teach her son to control his anger or
did she just tell him to put a fist in it?
But this kind of behavior had to be learned from somewhere. And
sadly, when someone is out of control, sooner or later, he or she
will have to pay the price for it.
Next, Cervantes resumes his argument with Samantha Rivera. With his
blood soaked hands, he starts beating her even though she is holding
their 1-year old son. Now that is definitely a family man who is
setting a fine example to his son.
According to the news report, here is what happened next:
Rivera put the baby down, ran to call police and dialed 911, but
Cervantes grabbed the phone, threw it to the floor and grabbed
Rivera by the throat, according to the report.
Cervantes then dragged Rivera by the hair to the front bedroom,
where he delivered a punch to the face that knocked her to the
ground, the report said.
Not only is this guy a fine family man but he sure knows how to
treat the mother of his baby. And for the mother of Cervantes, is
that the kind of environment that you as a grandparent expect your
very own grandchild to live in?
Next is what happened to end this thug’s life. Two police officers
who responded to the 911 phone call now arrive. Below is an account
of the incident:
About 11:50 p.m. Thursday, John Henry Cervantes, 26, was striking
his girlfriend in a bedroom in the 200 block of H Street when
Reynaldo Montes, a three-year member of the force, entered the room
and yelled for Cervantes to stop, police said.
Cervantes turned and lunged at Montes, who then fired a handgun from
his hip, striking Cervantes in the chest, police said.
And the police officer’s rational for shooting Cervantes is this:
When Montes and Barnes arrived at the house in response to a 911
call, they heard a man and a woman yelling and struggling inside the
bedroom, police said. With Montes leading, both officers entered the
house through the front door with their weapons holstered.
Inside, Montes saw "a large amount of blood on the walls, furniture
and other household items," according to a media release from
police.
A reporter's walk at the scene Friday morning revealed a sparsely
dotted trail of blood that began outside near the shattered windows
of Rivera's car and continued into the house. In the kitchen, the
refrigerator was smeared and splattered with blood.
In that split second, the police officers had to make a decision
based on their immediate surroundings and on what they know of at
the time. They were unaware that this hoodlum in his fit of rage had
just shattered a car window with his bare hands. Instead, they had
to assume that his girlfriend had been stabbed because of all the
blood inside the house.
And they also know full well that it only takes a mere couple of
seconds for a crazed thug to slash someone with a knife even if they
are twenty feet away. Consequently, the cops reacted the way that
they were trained which resulted in the killing of Cervantes. Below
is another excerpt of that account:
Montes yelled for Cervantes to stop but didn't identify himself as
an officer. Cervantes turned and lunged at Montes, who, standing 5
feet away and believing he was going to be stabbed, took one-half
step backward and fired his weapon.
Police are authorized to use deadly force only when protecting an
officer or another person from "what is reasonably believed to be an
immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury," according to
the San Antonio Police Department general manual.
The police department also explained the actions of the police
officers in this way:
"They weren't able to sit back and assess and evaluate different
options," police spokeswoman Sandy Gutierrez said.
Cervantes was unarmed but the police officers didn’t know that when
he attacked them. But that in itself is something that too many
people seem to overlook. That is, if somebody attempts to attack a
police officer, then two things may happen. The assailant will be
either being harshly subdued or he will be shot. Consequently, if
you lunge at a cop, then you are taking your chances with your own
life because police officers are trained to defend themselves.
Even so, this is what an uncle of Cervantes had to say:
"If two cops can't subdue an (unarmed) person, I guess they don't
belong being cops…"
The police are not in the business to “hug a thug” in incidents like
this. And it may come to a shock to certain hoodlums in that the
lives of the police officers come first before theirs. And if cops
have reason to believe that their lives are in danger, then they
will react appropriately.
And finally, it should come to no surprise to anyone of this tidbit
of information:
At the time of his death, Cervantes was awaiting trial in connection
with two charges of assault with bodily injury stemming from two
separate incidents, one in March 2003 and another in October 2003.
Those incidents were domestic disturbances involving Cervantes and a
previous girlfriend, police said.
Yes, this mother definitely taught her son right from wrong. But to
add one final ironic twist to this incident, Cervantes happened to
die on the first birthday of his son.
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COMMENTS FROM READERS
I too am sorry.
I am sorry that you didn't teach your son manners.
I am sorry that the girlfriend didn't have better taste in men.
I am sorry that she didn't [have] a gun with which to defend
herself.
I am sorry that your son didn't have a better mother and father.
I am sorry that he hadn't been stopped before he hurt the young
lady.
I hope the young lady recovers.
I hope the child never needs to find out what kind of man his
father was.
I hope that the child never has to spend time with his paternal
grandparents. Those people messed up his father enough, and
don't need to mess up the child.
-Don
I expect that both police officers had mothers.
I am sure their mothers would not have wanted a thug like
Cervantes to be their judge, jury and executioner. Do not their
lives count for something?
The thought that that woman might win the litigation lottery
after having done such a horrible job of raising that man makes
me sick.
I guess that is the modern get rich story. Raise a violent,
out-of-control thug who makes a habit of beating up women and
then cash in after he forces an honest cop to shoot in self
defense.
-George
I just want to say that the mother of the kid
is right. The police really need to find quick alternatives to
dealing with problems that do not involve killing.
Isn't it possible to make decent tranquilizer guns?
Couldn't you make some type of knock-out bombs that will just
put people in an area to sleep so you can deal with them when
they've cooled down.
Maybe the kid wasn't a model citizen, but an on the spot death
sentence for something that would never actually get a death
sentence is wrong. -Khurrum
I am the mother of John Henry Cervantes, who
was fatally shot and killed by a San Antonio Police Officer.
I disagree with the way the fatal incident was handled. We are
assuming a lot about the facts of case.
I ask you to not judge my son or call him a thug or hood. My son
was young and didn't always make the right choices; however, he
did not deserve to die for arguing with his girlfriend. The
facts of the case are not as the Police Department comment.
Since there is pending litigation, my son will have his day in
court because I am going to fight for his rights.
As an afterthought, I have to tell my grandchildren that a
police officer shot their father and this officer was the judge,
jury and executioner all at once!!!!
-Josie Martinez
Any opinions or views
expressed herein belong solely to the author and does not represent
any employer, organization, political party, governmental agency, or
any other entity and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
site owner or its participants.
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