I try to be amusing while shredding the shortcomings of the powers that be, but there’s absolutely nothing funny about the recently released police bodycam video that captured the tragic May 10, 2021, events when SLO Police Detective Luca Benedetti was killed in the line of duty by mentally ill alleged burglar Edward Giron as police attempted to execute a search warrant of his apartment.
The YouTube video is devastating to watch. After attempting to call Giron by phone, knock on his door and yell for him to come out, and use an apartment manager-supplied key to gain entry, police used a battering ram and broke the door in. Giron shot Detective Benedetti in the head with a shotgun through the open door, the other officers on the second-floor landing fled down the stairs to take cover, with Detective Steve Orozco sustaining two gunshot wounds. Then he and Officer Joseph Hurni returned fire.
Giron took Detective Benedetti’s assault rifle and shot back, and then, wounded by police gunfire, he retreated to his apartment and killed himself with a gunshot to the head using the assault rifle. It’s a horrible tragedy. It also makes it—to my mind—crystal clear that given the circumstances of the moment, police actions were justified, and Detective Orozco and Officer Hurni behaved with heroism and honor.
The problem is it didn’t have to happen that way, and thanks to a records request from The Tribune, recently released reports by the SLO County Sheriff’s Office, the SLO County District Attorney’s Office, and Cuesta Polygraph Investigations show a massive systemic failure of communication and procedure, not to mention a gaping lack of effective mental health services in the county.
According to those reports and reportage by The Tribune, the officers didn’t know Giron was in the midst of a mental health crisis, had deep animosity and paranoia toward law enforcement, and was probably armed. The real question law enforcement needs to investigate and answer is: Why didn’t they know?
Giron had a history of mental illness, was twice reported missing, and had 14 documented interactions with police between March 2020 and January 2021, three of which noted he possibly had a gun. In one case, in July of 2020, an anonymous female caller requested a welfare check and warned that Giron may want to harm police and may have a gun, and according to Tribune reporting, “It does not appear police made in-person contact with Giron regarding this call.” In another instance, a neighbor called about Giron’s loud music, crying and screaming, and erratic behavior. Police came and concluded his behavior was bizarre but didn’t warrant further action.
Detective Marissa Womack was supposed to do a background check on Giron prior to the search warrant operation. She discovered the past police contacts with Giron and said she told Detective Orozco, but, again, according to The Trib, she “did not believe there were any areas of significant concern that needed to be documented in the operations plan.”
She also discovered Giron had no legally registered guns in his name, though police eventually discovered six rifles and shotguns in his apartment. Detective Womack later said she was unaware of Giron’s manic behavior or she would have included it in the plan. Detective Orozco seems to contradict Detective Womack in the reports, saying he wasn’t aware of Giron’s mental health situation or former police interactions. Someone is misremembering.
What a mess. What a fiasco. With the right information, this might all have been avoided. If guns weren’t so easily available, if mental health care wasn’t so sadly unavailable, if, if, if …
Meanwhile, when given the opportunity to condemn gun violence at their June 6 meeting, two members of the SLO County Board of Supervisors voted against the “Resolution declaring the first Friday in June to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the county of San Luis Obispo.” Want to guess which two?
Fifth District Supe Debbie Arnold didn’t like the resolution because what about “defensive gun use”? See? Guns can’t be bad because they can save someone … from presumably someone else with a gun. Great argument … not.
First District Supe John Peschong truly believes “this is actually a mental health question.” He also claimed he supported “a lot of funding” for “behavioral health,” though apparently not enough to help someone like Giron, whose illness was left untreated and who was able to acquire six weapons illegally because our country is awash in guns. The resolution passed 3 humans to 2 ostriches. Sigh.
Speaking of sticking your head in the sand, Hate Month continues. Anti-Semitic and homophobic flyers were distributed in yards in Paso Robles on June 7, and on June 10, two masked yahoos flew a homophobic banner from the Los Osos Valley Road overpass bridge on Highway 101 in south San Luis Obispo. In rainbow-colored letters, the banner said PEDOPHILES, and underneath in black letters NOT WELCOME.
Usually this space is reserved for roasting the tool bag du jour, but today I give a shoutout to Facebook poster Kara Woodruff, who like a total badass responded to the yahoos’ hate speech with some free speech of her own. She recorded herself confronting the two men on the overpass, and after about four minutes of berating them, the masked cowards gathered their banner and hit the bricks. Bravo, Kara! Bravo! Δ
The Shredder celebrates Pride Month. Comment at shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Winning Images 2023.
Intentionally misnaming shooter violence as gun violence is a malicious agenda to divert focus. There isn’t car violence, but there is driver violence. So, how is it that during an event the perpetrator is an active shooter, but after the event the it’s classified as gun violence instead of shooter violence? Deflection and diversion is widely accepted now instead of addressing the root cause.
So he didn’t have possession of the guns legally. None appeared to be registered to his name. It has nothing to do with gun laws. Those that want to do harm will do so. They will get the guns. No amount of scrutiny will stop that. And by the way, who were the guns registered to? Were they reported stolen? What is their culpability?
“It has nothing to do with gun laws. Those that want to do harm will do so. They will get the guns. No amount of scrutiny will stop that.”
So, the logical conclusion to what you said is that America is one very violent and demented nation. Deaths by gun violence are by far higher here (five times higher) than any other nation in the world. Look it up. Japan had just one death by gun in the last year and that was a political assassination. By comparison, the U.S. had 49,000 such deaths.
Thus, it must be that America is the home of the loser who has no other option in his life than to carry a gun and kill someone (Kyle Rittenhouse, George Zimmerman, Edward Giron, etc.).
Really??? Our nation is that screwed up? Maybe it is, but the explanation for the number of gun deaths is simple.
America is awash with guns. About 1.2 of them for every American, man, woman or child. It’s easy to get a gun in this nation if you have enough money. Getting about 200 million of those guns off the street would reduce gun deaths. No doubt about it. Just look at Australia and other civilized nations.
Intentionally misnaming pooper pants as poopy pants is a malicious agenda to divert focus from the pooper, to the poop. How is it during an poop event the perpetrator is an active pooper, but after the event it’s classified as poopy pants? Deflection and diversion is widely accepted now instead of addressing the root cause. Poop doesn’t poop pants, poopers poop pants.
America is awash with murder. Guns are an easy way to carry that out but its still awash with murder. How do you teach kids that murder is bad and guns carry the weight of that responsibility? That should be plain but from what we see, it isn’t being taught. As for our local government, we shouldn’t be afraid to wear the shame that we earn. Even though the demonstrators were “from Tulare County” the event happened in Templeton. Letting that ring out doesn’t put shame on you, it buries the narrow minded agitators. We all need a large dose of courage and honesty if we want to see any change.
PS: I can’t wait for that specific older generation to get on their knees in veneration for the way things are. Open you’re eyes, things aren’t good. Our communities are unaffordable, and cater towards tourism.
Jesus once called a group of authorities white washed tombs, we may look clean but we are not a place for the minority to flourish and live.
“I can’t wait for that specific older generation to get on their knees in veneration for the way things are. Open you’re eyes, things aren’t good. Our communities are unaffordable, and cater towards tourism.”
Well, I guess you mean my generation, the baby boomers. Never has there been such a contradictory group. In their youth they listened to the Beatles and opposed the Vietnam War. They opposed abortion and other restrictions on freedom such as the ban on smoking pot.
Amazingly, however, in their 30’s they voted for Ronald Reagan and the neo-liberal economic philosophy of Milton Friedman. They sold their souls for money. See Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. The nation took a totally different course. Unions were shunned. The poor were ignored or labeled as fraudsters (Reagan’s welfare queens). The decision was certainly profitable. Baby boomers accrued the highest household net worth of any U.S. generation, although that boom was not shared equally, middle class whites reaped the majority of that harvest.
Along the way we have allowed declining taxation of the ultra rich, declining Union membership, a major gap between rich and poor (highest since before the Great Depression), AND the highest number of guns in circulation, over 400 million guns in a nation with a population of 330 million.
All of this, in my opinion, has led to our nation being “awash with murder.” But there is a way out. Raise the top tax rate back to 91% as it was in 1960. Do away with “right to work” laws which have hindered Unions. Spend a trillion dollars on reparations to African-Americans who are the ancestors of slaves, and do away with the electoral college for presidential elections so that the candidate who wins the most votes (as both Al Gore and Hillary Clinton did in recent elections) wins the office.
So, Daniel, I apologize we didn’t leave you a better society, BUT, it’s not out of reach if the younger generations row in the same direction. They did in 2020 and we got Biden. I know he’s not FDR, but he is a smart and caring politician. He is at least rowing, ever so slowly, in the direction of justice for all.
Oops, I meant they opposed the denial of the right to an abortion.