Daniel Castillo, Ct'd…

This afternoon I spoke with Rick Dovalina, director of the Houston chapter of the Hispanic advocacy group LULAC, and who has served as spokesman for the Castillo family the last few days. According to Dovalina, police say they found what appear to be stems and seeds of marijuana, either in the Castillo home or in the yard behind it. Contrary to earlier reports, the victim's father, Daniel Castillo, Sr. was not arrested or charged with a crime.

Police did arrest a man in a white pick-up truck outside the house. The man was apparently dating one of the victim's sisters, and police claim they found crack cocaine in the vehicle.

Dovalina says Daniel Castillo, Jr. was unarmed, had no criminal record, and according to his father, was not involved in the drug trade. The police affidavit for the search warrant claims an unidentified informant saw crack being sold from the house. It names "David Castillo" as a possible suspect, then later, "Daniel Castillo." That tip and police observations of "traffic" at the Castillo home formed the basis of the forced-entry SWAT raid. No one but the police knows the identity of the informant.

According to his sister, Castillo was shot just below the eye as he rose up from his bed after hearing her scream. She was holding a 1-year-old child just a few feet from the shooting.

The police have still refused to comment. Dovalina and the Castillo family held a press conference today at noon Houston time. I wasn't able to watch it from D.C. I'm hoping to chat with Dovalina later this evening to get more information, and perhaps obtain a copy of the warrant and affidavit.

Comments

[VM]

Thank you, Radley for staying on top of these abuses of power.

In appreciation,
VM

[joe]

You rock, Radley.

So, what do we do?

[John]

It is an interesting sidenote whether or not the kid was dealing drugs, but it is really irrelevant. Last I checked selling crack doesn't give the police the right to shoot you. Moreover, even a valid search warrent that results in the seizure of drugs doesn't give the police the right to shoot anyone in the house. While I aplaud your efforts to dig on this case, Radley, it really doesn't matter not should it matter if this kid was selling drugs or not. The question is, was he armed and was there any reason for the police to shoot him.

I suspect if there was, we would have heard about it by now. For example, people knew immediately that the woman in Atlanta had a gun and had shot at the police. If this kid had had a gun or anything that could be mistaken for a gun, the police would have put that information out immediately. The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that some trigger happy under trained cop overreacted and shot the kid. It is just horrible. I don't care if he was America's biggest crack dealer.

[Radley Balko]

John,

I agree. And I hesitate to post anything about what drugs were or weren't found, precisely for the reasons you give -- it isn't relevant, and distracts from the real issue, which is that an unarmed kid was shot in the face (although if there were no drugs in the house, it does make the raid all the more egregious).

But I figure it's better to disclose as much as possible early, so if it does come out that the kid was somehow involved in the drug trade, critics can't claim that information was being intentionally omitted.

[dhex]

keep it up, mr. balko.

i hope the family is able to spin this into something bigger, or at least get some criminal charges filed against the people who murdered their son.

[Dave W.]

Interesting developments in the Peyton Strickland case:

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/543752.html

[John]

"But I figure it's better to disclose as much as possible early, so if it does come out that the kid was somehow involved in the drug trade, critics can't claim that information was being intentionally omitted."

Good point, although I really don't get the mentality that would think that it is somehow okay for the police to shoot an unarmed person as long as they had guessed right and the person had drugs.

[Bob]

Good point, although I really don't get the mentality that would think that it is somehow okay for the police to shoot an unarmed person as long as they had guessed right and the person had drugs.

They can shoot someone if in commission of a violent crime like drug possession.

[Bob]

It is an interesting sidenote whether or not the kid was dealing drugs

If he was then it is entirely justified, one less criminal out there.

[Nick M.]

Possession is vilolent crime? Against who?

I realize that Bob is nothing more than a common troll, but is that a pervasive opinion...that even the mere possession of drugs makes a person more inclined to be violent?

Nick

[Bob]

I am sorry for the family, but they did find seeds, this just shows how unhealthy drugs are, they can kill you.

that even the mere possession of drugs makes a person more inclined to be violent?

Using them makes people violent, only alcohol is acceptable because it has a long history of safe use in western society.

[John]

Bob has got to be someone kidding. Drugs are a violent crime!! Yeah right.

[angry]

This sucks. This guy was killed for no apparent reason. He had his whole life ahead of him. Now a father has to bury his child.

There's no way for a nation with a strong respect for civil liberties and the rule of law to remain true to its core values if crimes like these are routinely committed by the police.

I miss the old America, the one with robust civil liberties and, consequently, a healthy respect for the rule of law.

Where do I write to get my country back?

To whom does Mr. Castillo complain to get his son back?

[Timothy]

Jesus fuck, Bob, you're the least creative troll this week. You're like Dan T's mongoloid little brother, no...that's too insulting to mongoloids, you're more like his paint-huffing younger brother.

[Aresen]

Bob

If you are trolling, it's tasteless. #### off.

If you are not trolling, it's tasteless.
#### off.

[Guy1138]

Some kid was shot in the face, for what appears to be no good reason. Balko is leading the charge right now documenting these abuses and getting justice for the victims & families.

Then 'Bob' comes in and decides it'll be fun to crap all over a serious thread. Nice.

But it doesn't really matter, right 'Bob'? Just one more dead male spic. Who cares.

Go back to GBS, 'Bob'.

[Warren]

Keep beating the drums Radley.

Everything they said about alcohol, is actually true about speed heroin coke crack meth prohibition.

[Warren]

Bob's not torlling, he's being sarcastic. Judging from the response, pretty effective I'd say.

[Jason]

"Go back to GBS, 'Bob'."

What's GBS?

[thinking out loud]

People in bear country put a carpet of nails on the ramps to their cabins to keep hungry grizzlies from barging in. I think one of those, strategically placed just inside the door...

[Kwix]

Good point, although I really don't get the mentality that would think that it is somehow okay for the police to shoot an unarmed person as long as they had guessed right and the person had drugs.

I don't get it either, but it seems to very prevalent on the socially-conservative "right-wing" side of the house.

From a recent John Hawkins article:

That's why once, way back when William Bennett was the drug czar, he responded like so to a caller on the Larry King show who told him that he should "behead the damn drug dealers."

"I mean what the caller suggests is morally plausible," he said. "Legally, it's difficult."

Bennett was right then, he's right now...

[Ex-Police]

I am sorry for the family, but they did find seeds, this just shows how unhealthy drugs are, they can kill you.

Exactly. Just as we've been saying, another marijuana-related death.

[LatexSolarBeef]

what's the drive for forced entry of the drug raid sort?

to preserve evidence?

reminds me of prison

where high profile shakedowns of suspicious inmates' cells were run as much to spook the rest of the inmates into exercising a little prudence in what they had in their cells, as they were run to keep contraband out

[John]

"That's why once, way back when William Bennett was the drug czar, he responded like so to a caller on the Larry King show who told him that he should "behead the damn drug dealers."

"I mean what the caller suggests is morally plausible," he said. "Legally, it's difficult."

I wonder what old Bob thinks we should do with compulsive gamblers?

[JimmyDaG33k]

In reading some related articles, one of the reasons for suspicion was "high traffic" in and out of the house.

I think I need to stop hosting poker games in which my friends arrive when they please, leave when they please, and make various runs to the liquor store as they please. My fiance also needs to stop hosting those Princess House parties. I don't want them kicking in my door at 3 in the morning...

[Kwix]

JimmyDaG33k,
You may want to stop the poker games even if nobody enters or leaves your house as the SWAT team may raid you anyway.

[Bob]

Bob's not torlling, he's being sarcastic. Judging from the response, pretty effective I'd say.

Ja, Si, Yes

It just shows how easy the arguements for this can be defeated as they are illogical.

[JimmyDaGeek]

No fair, SWAT gets to have all the fun! They get to go around, mindlessly shooting innocent people, and then make up excuses such as, "that hero sandwich looked like a gun". Hook me up! Where do I sign up?

[Thomas Paine\'s Goiter]

So, what do we do?

For once, I agree. What can we do?

[*]

You rock, Radley.

So, what do we do?

First of all, I second this comment. Secondly, although it's a very small thing, you can start by getting a digg account (I imagine a well read person like yourself already has one) and either submit each of these stories to digg, or, if it has already been submitted, digg it. Everyone on reason should be doing this for every one of Radley's drug war posts. That way, these stories will find a larger audience and hopefully raise the profile of stories like these higher in the national consciousness. Again, it is a small thing, but one which may get enough people angry about these sort of occurrences, and also get enough people to realize that they are not uncommon, that a majority or at least a larger minority feel that it is time to really press for reform.

Right now the marginalization of those who want reform in police tactics has much to do with old media's shameful record in reporting these crimes. Raising awareness is a big piece of the puzzle.

[Thomas Paine\'s Goiter]

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/543752.html

*sniff*.

He can't get a job. He's shunned. It's awful.

[JimmyDaGeek]

Forget Power Rangers and TV Violence...

What a better example than the fine men and women of SWAT, at least in this case.

I need to get on the ball and start making and marketing SWAT action figures. I can picture it now, little Johnny pretending to kick down a door, guns a-blazin'...shoot first, ask questions...never.

[M]

People in bear country put a carpet of nails on the ramps to their cabins to keep hungry grizzlies from barging in. I think one of those, strategically placed just inside the door...

Careful. Farmers have lost cases like this:

http://www.law.mq.edu.au/Units/law405/Study_Guide/Katko_v_Briney/katko_v_briney.htm

[John]

TPG,

That is an interesting article. You would think the guy would, I don't know, feel guilty about shooting an unarmed person. He doesn't seem to fazed by it. You wrongfully kill someone and all you can say is "bummer I can't be a cop anymore". You would think he would have more to say for himself and at least would express some remorse or at least fake some for the media. Amazing.

[Stems and Seeds]

in the earlier thread Creech suggested

"
Why can't the cops wait until the suspect leaves the house to go to the movies or the grocery store, quietly surround him, etc? The drug evidence will still be back at his home.
It is time to demonstrate and boycott towns and cities where this nonsense goes on. No LP conventions any kind in Houston until justice is served. Write their visitor's bureau and tell them you've just cancelled plans to vacation in Houston.
"

I have always concured with this. In this situation it even makes more sense because the house in question is at the end of a dead end road. It is in Wharton TX and not Houston, the address is:
1409 N Sunset St, Wharton, TX 77488

I put this together from the various articles here and on MAPINC. Put the address into Google maps or earth and take a look. The other thing you will see is that the kid was probable DOA, the hospital is only a few blocks away.

SAS

[Lazlo Nibble]

What's GBS?

It's no FYAD, that's for damn sure.

(A fact for which I'm eternally grateful.)

[*]

No LP conventions any kind in Houston until justice is served.

Please, don't throw me in that ol' brier patch.

- Houston

Write their visitor's bureau and tell them you've just cancelled plans to vacation in Houston.

Houston knows that no one in their right mind would "vacation" there. Now, Austin or San Antonio might be believable. Corpus Christie even. But Houston...no chance.

[Aresen]

TPG

I second John's comment, although it is possible the guy's attorney is telling him not to express any regret lest it be taken as an admission of responsibility and used against him in a civil suit.

[van]

>Possession is vilolent crime? Against who?

Drug possession is a violent crime in the same way that "the male gaze" is violence against women. Which is to say, drug possession is not a violent crime.

[[e-mail]]

>Using them makes people violent, only alcohol is acceptable because it has a long history of safe use in western society.

OK, this statement makes me think that Bob must be using sarcasm.

[*]

BTW, another blog site I frequent, engadget, gives you the option to Digg a story with a "Digg it" link directly in the blog post itself. Reason might want to adopt a similar policy.

I know a lot of people here are against Digg, low signal to noise and all that, but the people who read and post there are fairly representative of those who need convincing on these issues (i.e. drug policy reform and police tactics reform).

[hmm.]

On the topic (from the previous Castillo thread) of counseling for the police officers -- this is small consolation, but I'm aware of research in the EMS field showing that "critical incident stress debriefing" doesn't help personnel cope better and may even make things worse. This is also true of certain types of post-traumatic counseling for rape victims. We can only hope the results are the same for the officers involved in this and similar cases.

[isildur]

:gb2gbs:

Bob's just Juanita. Give him a break; he's consistent.

[wayne]

"According to his sister, Castillo was shot just below the eye..."

This might be irrelevant, but here goes:

I took the four day, defensive handgun class at Frontsight firearms training academy in Nevada a year or so ago. It is fun and worth the money, IMO. In that class, you are trained to shoot an attacker only as a last resort, and you are trained to fire two well-aimed rounds to the center of mass, i.e. the center of the chest. If, and only if the attacker "fails to stop" after being wounded with those two rounds to the center of mass do you fire a single, well-aimed round to the "inter ocular cavity". A hit in this area is "garanteed" to be instantly fatal. The final bit of training is that you never do the headshot as a first resort or else it amounts to assassination. This is standard training.

The fact that this kid was killed with a round to the inter-ocular cavity might be irrelevant. For example, it certainly could be argued by the police that it was a hazy, difficult situation and the placement of the round was just bad luck, etc., but this is just one more bit of damning evidence...

[wayne]

What Lincln thinks"

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." -- Abraham Lincoln

[Nobody Important]

wayne | February 17, 2007, 3:26am
"According to his sister, Castillo was shot just below the eye..."
...In that class, you are trained to shoot an attacker only as a last resort, and you are trained to fire two well-aimed rounds to the center of mass, i.e. the center of the chest. If, and only if the attacker "fails to stop" after being wounded with those two rounds to the center of mass do you fire a single, well-aimed round to the "inter ocular cavity". A hit in this area is "garanteed" to be instantly fatal. The final bit of training is that you never do the headshot as a first resort or else it amounts to assassination. This is standard training.

Nowhere is it written that the policies of any police department must conform to the "standard training" doctrine taught at Front Sight, or any other shooting school. Even if the Mozambique Drill is widely known.

You were taught defensive shooting. The police in this case were not the defenders, but conducting an offensive (in both senses of the word) operation. They chose the time and place to attack.

This doesn't stop cops from believing statements like "It was Amadou Diallo who set the stage for tragedy."

[wayne]

"Nowhere is it written that the policies of any police department must conform to the "standard training" doctrine taught at Front Sight, or any other shooting school."

Maybe so, but we were taught that this was "standard" in general, and furthermore many police departments send officers to FrontSight for training. There were ten or twelve police officers in the class (of 300) that I attended.

[stc1]

I don't know if it's related, but the Zarsky lumber yard in Wharton, about a block from the house where Castillo lived, burned down yesterday. Story in the Wharton Journal Spectator, http://www.journal-spectator.com.

[Dave W.]

One question that comes up with police shooting is whether police can shoot a fleeing suspect in the back. Or perhaps the issue is better stated as: how danderous does the person have to be before police get the privilege of shooting him in the back. It looks like one of these cases has just come up in Detroit. Cop Talk thread on it:

http://tinyurl.com/2jfzd5

[Frank Drebin]

Just think, next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested.

[Fed Up]

just think, next time you could shoot the arresters.

[wayne]

"One question that comes up with police shooting is whether police can shoot a fleeing suspect in the back."

I thought you were a lawyer? There is almost no circumstance where police can shoot a suspect in the back.

[Dave W.]

I thought you were a lawyer? There is almost no circumstance where police can shoot a suspect in the back.

Constitutional law is not really my area of expertise. I think there was a big case out of Tennessee in '74 where they shot a fleeing suspect in the process of climbing a fence and SCOTUS eventually said that that was a bad shoot. Don't remember the case name. However, those were different times, legally speaking.

Really LEOs follow the new developments in this area of the law better than I do. They seem to think that the standard is "immediate threat to public safety" and that if the fleeing perp has a gun, as the one in Detroit seems to have, then he is automatically an immediate threat to public safety.

I find it a matter of concern that police personnel think that way, but these are exactly the kind of troublesome discussions that got me 86'd from Cop Talk.

Will be interesting to see if this case in Detroit goes anywhere.

[wayne]

What they taught at FrontSight is that the only time it is legitimate to shoot is if your own, or the life of another is at risk.

The example you cite in Detroit might fulfill this requirement if the LEO believed the fleeing perp was an imminent threat to the life of another.

[Dave W.]

The example you cite in Detroit might fulfill this requirement if the LEO believed the fleeing perp was an imminent threat to the life of another.

If that is what the shooter had to believe, then you better bet that he will be questioned in a manner that ensures that that is what he believed. It is easy to believe what you need to believe if the belief is what is standing between you and the big house.

I think the theory is that if the perp had gotten away from the scene of the brawl at the funeral home then he would have pulled out the illegal gun again and started shooting people with it. He was a "White Tee Shirt Boy" after all. That much we know. I am no LEO, so who am I to say he wouldn't have? (they taught me well at Cop Talk)

It is a pity that we don't know exactly how many lives were saved by having the LEO executing the fleeing perp in this case. Two? Tens? Hundreds? The mind boggles.

[Kathy]

I am a family member of Daniel Castillo Jr. I have been searching for days to see what the blogging community had to say about this and was very disturbed that it HAD HARDLY BEEN ADDRESSED ANYWHERE but in the local media. I am glad to see that there are others out there that actually noticed, whatever your feelings are on the subject.

I was raised in Wharton COunty and even worked at the police station the summer before I left for college. The city government, police department, and judicial system in this town have been corrupt for years. You don't have to dig very far to find it. Its just a good ol' boy society and they all cover for each other. The town is racially divided. I never knew what "normal" society was like until I left that town.

The entire family is afraid that people are going to see this as "oh well, just one less young hispanic male for us to deal with." They've got the wrong family this time. They will not come into our homes and kill our children and then move on with their lives. As long as we have no justice, we will always be there to remind them that an innocent young life was taken. They didn't even give him a chance to be tried and convicted of anything. That lone cop was the judge, jury and executioner. They shot him as he stood next to his sister who was holding her 1 year old baby. They hauled his mother away in handcuffs as she struggled to get to her son. They refused to even let her contact his father at work to let him know that his son had been shot. His 14 year old brother got reasonably upset and demanded to see the warrant. They arrested him for "interfering with a police investigation" and hauled him off to juvie. To this day, the only reason they even got a hint of what was in the warrant was becasue the media was able to get it before them.

When word spread that Danny had been shot, the police blocked off the ER at the local hospital and kept everyone out. (Its a very small town and word spreads fast.) He died after he had been flown to a larger hospital in a city about an hours drive away.

All this happened BEFORE they ever found a stem or seed in that house, or on the property surrounding it. It is still up in the air where the drugs were actually found. The neighborhood is a dead end, but with the houses in close proximity to each other and trailers in between. They searched areas that weren't actually covered by the warrant.

No representative from the police department, DA's office or Sherriff's Depaertment has spoken to the family. The police department and DA's office have clammed up and are not commenting to the media...anymore. They had made a couple of comments, but it was very obvious from the information that has been brought out since then, that they were misinformed and were speaking without any facts to back their statements up.

These are the facts.
Daniel Castillo Jr. age 17 was shot in the face (once under the right eye) by a police officer dressed in full tactical gear only moments after he was awaken by his sisters pleas. He later died from his injuries. He had no criminal record. No other adults INSIDE THE HOUSE were arrested as result of this raid. His juvenile brother was arrested after demanding to see the search warrant. He was released that same night.

The family just wants to know why. Why did they do this? Was it an accident? Was he spooked by something? Just give us some sort of reason. Its all so senseless. Junior is dead. He will never graduate high school, he will never get married or have children. All beacsue some informant told them that a "David Castillo" was dealing drugs out of the house and the police believed him. Had anyone ever just gone to the house and knocked on the door, they would have discovered that there was NO David Castillo at that residence. There was a mother, father, their children and two grandchildren. Why didn't someone do that? WHY?

I guess we will know when the Wharton PD and DA's office feel good and ready to tell us. Or at least not until they can get their story straight.

Too late though, they already look like a bunch of bumbling jacka$$es.
The truth will be revealed, but I doubt anyone will be punished...except Danny Jr. and the family of course.

[Kathy]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. This is the same town where in the past year no charges were filed on an officer who shot a fleeing illegal alien IN THE BACK. He got away with it, still works for the police department. Said his life was in danger. WHAT?!?!? He was running AWAY in an open field - after a traffic stop. The fat A$$ cop just didn't want to chase him down.

Unfortunately, because of his legal status, that man will never get justice. It wasn't even noted in the media outside of Wharton.

This is why I don't belive anything will happen to the cop. There is no grand jury in Wharton that will convict a police officer of shooting a minority. Plain and simple.

[Radley Balko]

Kathy,

If you're still reading, could you email me?

[GreginOz]

Cathy, one of your family has to kill the motherfucker that murdered your cousin...an I.E.D. or a scope, whatever. Not for honour, not for revenge, but rather, for the future, well, a POSSIBLE future where pigs hesitate to gun down unarmed teens. Ooops, I didn't really mean that, of course, heavens forbid one advocating blowback against a murderer...NO OFFICER< DON"T SHOOT< I'M UNAR

[wayne]

Kathy,

I am sorry that you and your family are going through this.

[Kathy]

GreginOZ-

Believe it or not, they are having a HARD time holding the other young male family members back from seeking revenge. Someone has already set two fires. Business are locking their doors and only letting people in when they feel "safe." They shoot us like dogs in our homes. They just want for us to prove to the world that we are the animals they treat us like. Unfortunately, that means we have to sit back and do things the "right" way. We have to sit back and depend on the system that has failed us in the past to actually give us justice this time.

Wayne-
Thanks for the thoughts. If it wasn't our family it would be another one. This isn't the first time something like this has happened there, but hopefully it will be the last.

[Dee]

I saw a TV show at Frontsight the other day. It pitted two civilians against two LEO folks in a tactical shooting match.

Long story short in the 1st round a Kindergarden School Administrator outshot a SWAT team member with a 12 gauge slug gun. The object was to load a single round after hearing the buzzer and shooting the target. Now when a Kindergarden admin can outshoot a SWAT guy that scares me. I must say though the SWAT guy was faster to load and pull the trigger then the civilian but to what end if he missed the target.

Coming soon to a no-knock RAID near you!

[wayne]

Dee,

"Now when a Kindergarden admin can outshoot a SWAT guy that scares me."

It shouldn't scare you. Shooting is a learned skill, and most cops shoot the bare minimum to stay qualified. SWAT members would be expected to be better. The best shooter in the class (of 300) when I attended was a podiatrist. He looked like the barber on the old "Andy of Mayberry" show. He could shoot groups of five rounds from 7 meters from his Glock 22 (.40 caliber) that left no paper showing between holes. None of the top shooters at the Front Sight class I attended were cops. The bottom line though is that every student there, even the worst shooters, would be quite deadly in a gunfight.

[Russ 2000]

Exactly. Just as we've been saying, another marijuana-related death.

LOL! I loved that bit.

"Authorities did not belive her story about the x-police..."

[GreginOz]

Kathy, la venganza es una plata servido mejor cuando es frio...

[wayne]

Greg,
s?, pero los sentidos est? m?s vivo cuando es caliente.

[Mary Louise]

I too am from Wharton and my husband is a cousin to Jr. and today I read that now they are saying that Dannie had a knife. Truthfully I knew something like that would happen. And as for Wharton letting the state troopers take over, PLEASE!.... I heard from a reporter that the trooper in charge is from Bay City... if your were from Wharton than you would not find it hard to understand how Wharton, El Campo, and Bay City officials have the same interest at heart. Someone commented to Kathy that the officer needs to be killed... In Wharton, that's the kind of feeling "peace officers" put into people all the time! The only thing is, If we kill, We will be prosecuted ?.and that's exactly what they want.
There was a protest that went on all day, the day before the funeral. A lot of people are upset with the way some others have been acting? getting mad saying evil things against the police? cursing aloud and in public. Most people just don't know how to react, like the fires and other things. Lots of people think violence is an answer and lots think we can do better. But we don't know how to fight this kind of battle and that's why other things take place; but for the most we all know what we're dealing with straight from hell corrupt cops. And as much as I'm against violence? I can't help but to find myself thinking - sometimes violence is the answer?. Like Rodney King . The world witnessed how the verdict changed when the Black community reacted with violence. Have you ever heard the saying you have to respond to violence with violence to get a reaction.
And one thing I have to say before I go. Daniel Castillo Jr. was no drug dealer! He enlisted into the ARMY and on the day he was killed his mom and dad were supposed to take him to test with his recruiter. You know, not too many young Hispanics form this community make it out of Wharton and neither did this one. What happened in this event of misfortune, is exactly why I left Wharton and why I'm fearful to just drive down their streets. Because there the streets weren't made for the people but for the Officials and pigs of the community.

[Kathy]

Mary Louise-

Outside intervention is EXACTLY what Wharton needs. I get panic attacks EVERY time I go home to visit. I promised myself I would NEVER raise my family there. There is nothing for us there. Minorities are not equals in that community. Those who remain are doomed to a life of poverty. The only way out is to LEAVE. It shouldn't be that way. We couldn't save Danny, but now I feel an obligation to help save the rest. What can we do? I don;t know the answer, but I will go to my deathbed making sure it will never happen again.

They had extra police presence this past weekend to make sure the city was safe. Safe from who? All the angry law abiding taxpaying citizens? Oh no, wait. They want to protect themselves from the brown skinned dark haired ones. We aren't the ones with the guns, they are! Who is going to protect us from THEM? I guess WE don't count.

Also, do you like how the DA is showing what an ignorant SOB he is? Calling the ACLU a "hate group" and the protests and vigils "gang activity?" This is the man that is supposed to represent US - the people? If we allow these people to continue to stay in office, we are saying their obvious bias is OK. Time to clean up that place. Makes me feel guilty for ever leaving. I would be able to do more if I had stayed.

[Jessica]

I am so glad that you guys are putting this out there. I am the cousin of Daniels mother therefore I am his second cousin. I see him daily. I just want to inform you guys of a few ommitted details that the media is afraid for some reason or another to release. We( the family) have provided proof that Don Falks (the officer who killed Daniel)has a son who is a big time cocaine addict and after attempts at rehab he is still struggling. He has been stopped by Wharton PD with a controlled substance. Note! There was not a bond set next to his name in the police blotter. Why would we have an officer on a drug task force fighting the war on drugs when he is loosing it in his own family. Would this create some sort of vendetta? In addition, the latest news is the DA, Josh McCown decided to release that my cousin had a lock blade knife. In Saturdays Wharton Journal Spectator he states that when Don Falks went into the room he was punched by my cousin and there was a struggle. He stated that my cousin reached for something "black" by his waistband that he thought was a gun so he shot him and then later a closed pocket knife was found in the vicinity of the body. He decided to release this information after on Wednesday we held a town meeting and invited the D.A., Mayor and chief of Police to address the communities concerns. The meeting was held at a church in which we filled with limited standing room only and people still outside. Not one city official came to our meeting! This is an injustice! These are people who we elected and they can't even give us the courtesy of showing up for the people.
On another note, they found drugs in the truck but it was not seized. What is up with that? All they are doing is trying to buy time to get their story straight. We have not given up!

[Amanda]

i am the ex-girl friend of danny castillo. and i honetly think all that the cops and the news are saying is complete bull shit he is not a drug dealer 4 all u people that think he is! he does need justice...and he will get it! TERMINATOR will pay for what he has done! he was a good guy and never did anthing to deserve this!! i know him very well! he was also my best friend! R.I.P JUNIOR! i love ya sissy!!! --AMANDA