ANAHEIM, California—The family of a 36-year-old Filipino man who was shot to death by police officers last Saturday night are demanding answers from the District Attorney’s office.
According to reports, police officers were responding to calls about a man walking around an apartment complex on West Ball Street carrying a shotgun around 11 p.m. when they encountered and fatally shot Bernie Cervantes Villegas.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Orange County District Attorney’s office is investigating — a standard procedure in all officer-involved shootings — as to why police officers gunned down Cervantes, who was later found to be carrying a BB gun not a shotgun as reported by the 911 callers.
“My kid is dead,” said Villegas’ father, Miguel Villegas, to the OC Register. “He is not a murderer. He didn’t murder or molest anyone. He’s got a drug case, I’m not ashamed to admit. One time, he went to jail because his son is not going to school regularly.”
Miguel Villegas is hoping the DA investigators can find out why police officers chose to shoot his son rather than arrest him. It is unclear whether the younger Villegas had the BB gun in his possession or pointed it at the police officers before he was fatally shot.
Villegas has had a few run ins with the law. He was convicted of petty theft and pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of being under the influence of a controlled substance, according to the OC Register.
Villegas immigrated to the US from the Philippines in 2002. He is survived by his two children in the Philippines. Joseph Pimentel/AJPress