Marana, AZ police stop crime spree
Several people have sent us this link to a story about how Marana police officer Michael Rapiejko took it upon himself to stop Mario Valencia, who was on a crime spree that began at the local WalMart where he stole a rifle and some ammunition.
According to police, the crime spree began with a theft at a convenience store at Columbus Avenue and 29th Street, then the Tucson Baptist Temple at 1525 S. Columbus Avenue was broken into and was damaged by a small fire. Finally, there was a home invasion and car theft reported on the 3900 block of East Paseo Dorado, near 22nd Street and Alvernon Way.
While other officers tried to talk Valencia into surrendering, he pointed the gun at his own face, the police officers and he even fired a shot in the air. Then police officer Michael Rapiejko used his police vehicle to incapacitate Valencia, striking him and tossing the criminal several feet in the air. He was treated and released from his injuries a few days later.
I’d like to compliment officer Rapiejko for defusing a situation that would normally end with someone’s death. He had a tough decision to make and chose the safety of the community.
Category: Crime
Dirtbag goes on a 20 MILE armed crime spree through multiple jurisdictions, all the msm can focus on is the skin color of the cop “In the wake of other racist cop actions” and whether HE went too far to diffuse the situation.
Olaf: Marana’s in Pima County, AZ – just NW of Tucson. The report is from a Tucson news site.
Tuscon is not far to the right of SF, politically. It’s not surprising that commenters there are jumping on the “poor mistreated, misunderstood guy held down by ‘the Man’ ” bandwagon. In Tucson, it’s about the only one they know.
That don’t excuse the SJW filth, Hondo.
Didn’t say it excused anything, Grimmy. Just telling people that a reaction like that is not entirely unexpected from some people in the Tucson metro area.
Full disclosure: I used to be a resident of Marana (back when it was just cotton fields, no new-fangled Walmarts!) and am familiar of the political chasm of Mormonite Marana and the ultra-Left city of Tucson that would make Lenin well up with pride. 😀
I’m just shocked Clarence Dipshit hasn’t chimed in yet… maybe he’s still not too busy SWAT-ting Vets.
(laughing) Sorry, Olaf – didn’t realize you were a former resident of one of the few enclaves of sanity within the People’s Republic of Pima County. Most who haven’t lived in that area don’t realize that Arizona is NOT uniformly fairly conservative and has a few enclaves of libidiocy.
And yeah: I’m kinda surprised Sheriff Dipstick hasn’t stuck his nose into this one yet, either.
Maybe busy working on retiring 🙂
Haven’t heard much from ol’ Clarence since shortly after he shot his mouth off following the Gabby Giffords shooting. I think the Pima county commissioners told him to STFU until retirement.
That third world violence in Memphis seems to have spread: http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2015/04/15/flames-of-hate-engulf-durban
Unless I got the wrong link, the violence in that article is in Durban, South Africa.
I think the fact that the violence in Durban was a lot like the recent violence in Memphis was his point, PN. Durban isn’t exactly “first world”.
I think the cop deserves an award for creative minimal use of force. Here in Houston there would have been 20 cops emptying multiple magazines and putting three bullets into the guy.
Three? That’s three more than NYPD would have put in him, plus they would have dropped about a dozen bystanders.
I want to know where all the armed citizens are? You always hear this: “If that had happened in MY neighborhood, I would have…” Nope. Never does. Cops are the only ones who play ‘go fetch’ with this scum.
Pinto. This happened right in front of my storage place,the guy that runs the place was talking to someone from coca-cola. The storage place manager is a Vet. When this turd came running down the street he said he got the Gun in the office, and locked the door to the office, no sooner then he did that shit-bag was run over, Lmao ! ! ! the wall in the video is between them the storage place and Sargent next door
Holy shit. Dude looked like he was going 40 mph. I can’t believe the suspect walked away from the hospital a couple days later. I’m guessing the ambulance chasers will contact the guy and try to sue the police department.
And he was !!!!!!!
This happened at my storage place in Marana, Az the video from the office of the storage place shows this asshole firing his gun and then bop… Game over
Bop? Kinda like this…..
Here is a like now the shitbags attorney is saying the cops name is Robo cop
Crap it won’t let me past a like on here I’m at the storage place now and it’s full of news outlets CNN FOX and the other Clown I’ll post pics on FB Page
That would be link and not like F-ing auto correct spelling
I dont recall where use of a vehicle sits in any Use of Force continuum I ever taught or was taught, nor do I recall being taught to pit pedestrians in driving class, but in a pinch, whatever works.
Score 1 for the good guys!
It falls under use of “Lethal Force”. In other words if you can justify using deadly force against a suspect, then you can justify using your vehicle.
And yes, we were taught this.
I don’t know what UoF continuum you were trained under, but in 26 in both military and civilian LE I have never been taught “As a last resort, run his ass over…”
Not disagreeing with his technique, just sayin…
No use of force continuum prohibits improvised weapons either. They just prioritize the weapons the officer is trained with.
Well in my 34 years we have taught this and continue to in CA.
I posted this comment on another blog:
“No citizens hurt, no cops hurt, suspect (with an extensive criminal record) hurt after discharging a rifle on a public street in a densely populated neighborhood. The potential for tragedy to innocents was enormous!
The cop that ran into this moron saved his bosses tons of money and man-hours by not allowing a stand-off to occur. Potentially, a lot of lives were saved or at the very least serious physical injury to others was avoided.
Bottomline: the cops 1 – idiot – 0
Next case, your honor.”
I’m with you guys…one dirtbag down. No telling how many lives saved or property preserved. But I still have never seen a UoF continuum that prescribed use of a patrol car as hard control or higher…
(Some of you are taking my comments way to seriously btw…I was always the smart ass in class…sometimes I think it doesn’t translate well to the interweb…)
From one smarta$$ to another…
Cheers and here’s to the next hood ornament! 🙂
Right back at you…stay safe out there!
We used to talk about this very scenario in training. The consensus was that if deadly force was justified, then the method was not as important as stopping the threat as quickly as possible.
Exactly. The use of force continuum’s end point is lethal force, not a specific tool to deliver that force. This officer’s choice was unconventional but it worked. Instead of a “good shoot” conclusion, it will be a “good hit” I guess.
Yeah, but where the fuck is the justice? That stupid bastard walks out of the hospital a couple of days after after being hit squarely by a police car. We had a local teenager that accidentally got tagged on a local off-ramp, the driver tried to avoid hitting her, and they scraped that poor kid up with a spatula. Road kill.
It’s shit like this I WANT ANSWERS FOR when I die.
I was taught that sometimes you must use a saw to drive a nail…not recommended, not as effective, not necessarily the prettiest finish, but in the end the task is still considered complete.
One scumbag behind bars, I Just hope the vehicle wasn’t damaged any further.
From the look of the wall, and the dude going ‘wheeeee!!!!’ I think it’s a pretty safe assumption the car is PF’kdU. Lucky man tho. Talk about head over heels…
Any word on whether Senor Valencia was a foreign national here illegally and perhaps released into the community by ICE in 2014?
He’s a Red blooded American on Meth…. And pain Killers
Oh goodie. The White House and La Raza will be pleased.
Yeh one of our left wing networks here was starting to cry about this a month ago and then shut-up quick like during the review
Senor Grijalva was probably sportin’ wood!
I get the heebie jeebies watching the cop stop so close to a suspect with a damn shotgun!
I hope he had his firearm already drawn cause it sure sucks trying to draw it while sitting in a squad car.
I would have been out of the car and ordering the crap out of him to drop his weapon.
Thank God it all worked out in the end.
This is why I am not a police officer, and would probably make a horrible one. I would have been out of the car shooting, the infantry in me is to deeply instilled I guess.
“If I hade a some he would Airborne like this young man”
p.s I gave him a no/go on his PLF.
“Forget about making Mario jump to break individual squares of bricks with his fists… I helped him break a larger part of a brick structure with his whole body! Unfortunately, I heard that music that you hear when a puny Mario falls off the screen. All those times he hoped over those turtles, he couldn’t keep an eye on his six!” – Cop
“It’s a Me-a Mario” – Mario
“…tell that to the Judge!” – Cops
The people that are complaining about the cop running over the scumbag are the same ones that would be blaming the police for not doing enough if said scumbag hurt somebody.
Or if they would have ventilated his dumb ass.
It’s funny that the NYPD was mentioned up above. I just read that the officer is a former officer with the NYPD. I guess he had good reason to use his car. Seriously, it’s a cream to google this story and see what the news outlets are doing with it. The lefties (CNN, Huff Post…) headlines are all about a COP intentionally running over a suspect. The more responsible news outlets are calling the guy “an armed suspewct” or “an armed, robbery suspect.”
Sounds like that cop’s going to be lucky to keep his freedom, much less his job, the way the media is after him.
It’s Pima County. He may well have reason to worry.
City of Tucson leans left the county is center left the area that this happend is center right
And the media that covers this is…? Because that is what will decide the officer’s fate. If the media decides to smoke him, he’s toast. The ONLY thing that I can see that might prevent that is the perp was obviously armed.
As I posted on here where this happend is right next to a 6 lane freeway. And you are right the national media is going to blow this up the guy had two pockets of ammo and had been firing the rifle on the way to this area from the wal mart. I know the manager of the storage place spoke to him a while a go. And he said it’s been non stop media interviews he may jump on here to tell his side. But I have a feeling that your are tracking on what is going to end up happening here
From what I’ve read, no grand jury will indict him. The suspect was definitely a threat to the officers and the community at large.
Look at what happened in Ferguson. The media was out to crucify the officer, but those annoying things called facts saved him.
That will be the case here.
And to your point that the suspect was armed, of course you’re right. If he had been unarmed in this particular situation, it would have been excessive force. But with the gun, and what the suspect was doing with it, it’s not.
True, Skippy. But this could end up investigated by the Pima Co sheriff’s department.
Unless things have changed in the last few years, that department has some issues.
Hondo. I don’t watch the news very much until last night and HOLY CRAP !!!! They the left are Blowing this UP I’m going to eat every work I’ve said on here about this place being center left..
I was on a few local news sites and holy Crapola people are mad at what this officer Did.. God Help America…
It’s left left ???
I just spoke to the manager it’s been non stop interviews today Lol… He’s a vet and he said he’s going to try to jump on here and tell us what happens
Happend damn spell checker
Also to note this was about 500 feet from the I-10 freeway and the guy had two pockets of ammo
“OK, never mind” LMAO!
AWESOME ! So proud to live in Arizona with this one ! ! !
Great job STOPPING so much potential death and destruction.
“He’s not a threat. Its got a gun lock”
BLAM!
“Oh okay, nevermind”
Jackass.
Yeah, how embarrassing is that! He’s the type of guy that would think his weapon’s not loaded, while cleaning it, and then shoot his foot off. IMO, as soon as this nutjob fired into the air, the cops should have unloaded on his ass.
From Tucson, actually a native and was in PD there. The Chief of Police in Marana, where the this ended, is fully backing his Officer. BTW that same Chief is retired TPD. While the Tucson city clowncil is only slightly to the right of san Francisco (about .00001 mm) the PD is not and never has been. Marana is pretty conservative and annually remembers the fallen Marines in the Osprey crash several years ago.