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December 12, in America and Mexico, is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Two weeks before the birth of Jesus, barrios across the continent and across Anaheim celebrate the apparition of the Mother of Jesus to Juan Diego, with songs, candles and posole.
This last December 12 the Anaheim Police Department had, after a particularly bloody 2018, made it ALMOST all the way through 2019 without killing anybody, that we know of.
But just before midnight, the word spread from the neighborhood near East Street and Lincoln, that the police had fatally shot a 34-year-old man in an underground garage, a man named Taveonte Art Emmanuel, but known as Jonathan to his friends and family.
The news stories and police statements, always uninformative, were more uninformative than ever. Nobody other than the police and their bodycams appear to have witnessed the actual shooting. The police were there to “investigate a disturbance,” but still weren’t sure if Jonathan was the cause of the disturbance. “Authorities did not release details of what prompted” their killing of Jonathan. “It hasn’t been disclosed” whether Jonathan had a weapon – which means he didn’t – and in fact, according to his wife Elis and other witnesses we spoke to, he did not and never had.
There are still way more questions than answers, as they say. Elis says that she and her husband of 17 years were having an argument, and she briefly left the house so as not to argue in front of their 13-year old daughter (their other two kids, 2 and 1, were at her mother’s that night.) The police say they arrived to investigate a complaint of a disturbance at 10:20, but Elis says she was still there until 10:40 and there were no police, and no disturbance.
The female neighbor who had called the police and now deeply regrets it did so because Jonathan was knocking at her door and she didn’t know it was him, the guy everyone in the neighborhood loved. After she realized it was Johnny she felt bad for calling, and shortly afterward at 11 when four gunshots rattled the building, she felt REALLY bad.
We don’t know why Jonathan was knocking on the neighbor’s door. Neighbors saw the police speaking to Jonathan outside his second story apartment. But nobody seems to know how he later ended up in the underground garage with the police, and shot in the back four times.
Jonathan’s widow and three children, unable to pay rent with their breadwinner killed, are now sleeping on friends’ couches. They had moved from Arizona a year or two earlier because Jonathan had gotten a good job with a construction company, fixing the messed-up pavement around telephone poles. Everyone I’ve found who knew him say he was a wonderful husband and doting father, never violent, and generous to everybody, to a fault. Elis can’t help but wonder if the fact he was a black man married to a white woman had anything to do with the police’s suspicions and anger.
Two days after the killing the DA’s men tracked Elis down at a soup kitchen and questioned her about Johnny’s violence, drinking, or drug use, hoping to justify the killing however they could. Within a day or two of his dying in the hospital he was embalmed without permission – objectionable because he was Muslim and that was against his religion, but conveniently also making it difficult to distinguish bullet entries and exits.
This blog has a Public Records Request with the city of Anaheim for whatever information we can get, and the bodycam footage should theoretically be available to the public by early February. Meanwhile the Anaheim police have killed one more person who should be alive, and condemned a fatherless family to poverty and homelessness. The Orange Juice Blog will keep you updated.
REST IN PEACE, TAVEONTE ART “JONATHAN” EMMANUEL.
Postscript: APD Fatalities in the 2010’s.
(a few of these may have been unavoidable.)
- Marcel Cejas, 2011.
- David Raya, 2011.
- Roscoe Cambridge, 2012.
- Bernie Villegas, 2012.
- Martin Hernandez, 2012.
- Manuel Diaz, 2012.
- Joel Acevedo, 2012.
- Robert Moreno, 2014.
- Paul Anthony Anderson, 2015.
- Rene Garcia, 2015.
- Monique Deckard, 2015.
- Gustavo Najera, 2016.
- Danny Rendon, 2016.
- Jennifer Anne Aiello (arrested by APD for shopping cart warrant, died in jail)
- Vincent Valenzuela, 2016.
- Tiffini Tobe, 2016.
- Adalid Flores, 2016.
- Chris Eisinger, 2018.
- Peter Muntean, 2018.
- Ian Tompko, 2018.
- Eliud Penaloza Nava, 2018.
- Lisa Olivares Martinez, 2018 (arrested by APD for shopping cart warrant, died in jail)
- Justin Perkins, 2018.
- Taveonte Art “Johnny” Emmanuel, 2019.
Update: Statement from APD, 1/10
I’ve got a statement from the APD now, whose new spokesman Shane Carringer is much easier to get a hold of than his predecessor Daren Wyatt (the killer of Adolfo Sanchez):
“There is slightly more information here than what was originally given out on the night of the incident since we have a slightly better understanding of what happened now, BUT I’m sure you will still have questions that would be better suited for the DA’s office since it’s their criminal investigation, they have much more information and they’ve been the collector of evidence/statements.
“At about 2220 hours the first call was received to Anaheim Police Department dispatch from a resident stating a male black adult, wearing a grey beanie and black pants was at their door screaming for the reporting party to open the door. As I said earlier, there was no mention of the subject being armed.
“Two APD patrol officers self-dispatched to the call at about 2230 hours and arrived on scene about 5 minutes later.
“Upon arrival they contacted the reporting party who identified Mr. Emmanuel as the subject in question and they told officers their call was related to a possible domestic violence incident involving Mr. Emmanuel.
“Officers attempted to contact Mr. Emmanuel but he was uncooperative with their efforts. Officers requested a supervisor to the scene and a field sergeant arrived at about 2250 hours.
“It was during that time officers again established contact with with Mr. Emmanuel and at about 2256 hours officers radio’d dispatch that there had been an officer involved shooting. The shooting occurred in the underground parking garage of the location. Officers on scene and subsequent responding officers provided medical aid until Mr. Emmanuel was transported to UCI Medical Center by Anaheim Fire and Rescue personnel where he ultimately died of his injuries.
“No Officers were injured during the incident and there was obviously at least one APD Officer who fired their weapon. Determining the number of officers who fired and the numbers of rounds fired will be handled by the OCDA office as well as confirmation of any other items of evidence or statements that may have been obtained by them during their investigation…
“Our critical incident debrief video should be available in the near future (I don’t produce the video so I have no more info on timeline) and those videos typically contain the 911 call to offer some context to the incident.”
PS. Elis denies any domestic violence, ever.
UPDATE Jan. 14
Got a response back from my PRA with the APD, about names of officers etc etc; they want FOURTEEN MORE DAYS TO RESPOND.
Meanwhile, if anyone wants to help Jonathan’s widow and three kids, there is now a gofundme page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fatherhusband-killed-by-police-family-needin-help
UPDATE 1/26, APD VIDEO
Interesting…
Thank you Vern, great writing. Even more then usual we don’t know what happened. Let’s see if if the APD squirms out of releasing the video in a timely fashion.
These Person’s are presumed guilty in death,and menu will be forgotten through the “sands of time”… unless we continue to remember what has happened and continue to respond, when law enforcement, steps out and kills someone over a shopping cart, maybe we should call for an ‘action event’ to publicly commemorate the names that were taken the past ten years,a reading of the names, and a pledge to never forget.
Daniel Ramirez the 3rd
Do you have any info on how to reach out to the family so we can help
I’ll send her your e-mail address.
Hello I’m Taveonte art Emmanuel Wife
Thanks for writing this Vern. I pray change comes soon. Such a sick world, but we must continue to fight for justice no matter what the cost. I look forward to seeing what kind of information we can learn from the body cams.
“It hasn’t been disclosed” whether Jonathan had a weapon – which means he didn’t –
Absolute goddamn right. We know the format.
Sue the crap out of APD and the morgue that illegally embalmed him!
How in the world could this be, a father taken away from his children in cold blood. Eventhough you are a racist, but remember that those you kill, they they have a family too, just like you do, a son, a daughter and a wife, think of them, before you kill he who catered for them.
I’ve got a statement from the APD now, whose new spokesman Shane Carringer is much easier to get a hold of than his predecessor Daren Wyatt (the killer of Adolfo Sanchez):
“There is slightly more information here than what was originally given out on the night of the incident since we have a slightly better understanding of what happened now, BUT I’m sure you will still have questions that would be better suited for the DA’s office since it’s their criminal investigation, they have much more information and they’ve been the collector of evidence/statements.
“At about 2220 hours the first call was received to Anaheim Police Department dispatch from a resident stating a male black adult, wearing a grey beanie and black pants was at their door screaming for the reporting party to open the door. As I said earlier, there was no mention of the subject being armed.
“Two APD patrol officers self-dispatched to the call at about 2230 hours and arrived on scene about 5 minutes later.
“Upon arrival they contacted the reporting party who identified Mr. Emmanuel as the subject in question and they told officers their call was related to a possible domestic violence incident involving Mr. Emmanuel.
“Officers attempted to contact Mr. Emmanuel but he was uncooperative with their efforts. Officers requested a supervisor to the scene and a field sergeant arrived at about 2250 hours.
“It was during that time officers again established contact with with Mr. Emmanuel and at about 2256 hours officers radio’d dispatch that there had been an officer involved shooting. The shooting occurred in the underground parking garage of the location. Officers on scene and subsequent responding officers provided medical aid until Mr. Emmanuel was transported to UCI Medical Center by Anaheim Fire and Rescue personnel where he ultimately died of his injuries.
“No Officers were injured during the incident and there was obviously at least one APD Officer who fired their weapon. Determining the number of officers who fired and the numbers of rounds fired will be handled by the OCDA office as well as confirmation of any other items of evidence or statements that may have been obtained by them during their investigation…
“Our critical incident debrief video should be available in the near future (I don’t produce the video so I have no more info on timeline) and those videos typically contain the 911 call to offer some context to the incident. “
Got a response back from my PRA with the APD, about names of officers etc etc; they want FOURTEEN MORE DAYS TO RESPOND.
Meanwhile, if anyone wants to help Jonathan’s widow and three kids, there is now a gofundme page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fatherhusband-killed-by-police-family-needin-help
Are you at all remorseful for your faulty conclusions now that the video has been released?
This reminds me of when al Jabbar played al Sharpton this summer saying all kinds of crazy stuff O’Neil the video showed the girl pointing a gun at the freeway. All of you race baiting cop hating law breaking (drunk driver) fools should be ashamed of yourselves
No, I’m not remorseful, I didn’t make any “conclusions.”
Everyone can see the video uploaded above. I’ll comment on it tonight when I get off work.
BTW. Do any police apologists exist who can spell, or use “grammar?”
“Tony Moyer,” you’re not fooling us with your deft VPN-hopping.
What part of dont reach for an officers gun and you wont get shot is so hard to understand. Gee, I wonder why I was shot.
That may have been what happened. That’s what the cops say happened. We have only their word, you can’t tell from the video.
But “and you won’t get shot” is bullshit. You obviously never heard of the dozens of other APD OIS’s of these last two decades..
Now go away, you sound like a prick.
Vern Nelson, the Orange County District Attorney’s office released its conclusion on this case, and the narrative is quite different than the one you’re spinning about an “innocent” dad being mysteriously shot. You may want to more carefully investigate stories before besmirching the police, who only opened fire after he wrangled a gun out of an officer’s holster and pointed it at them.
I uploaded the police video, and didn’t write any more.
OF COURSE the DA took the cops’ word. And that might be what happened. But no matter how many bodycams are going, we never see the suspect grabbing a gun, in nearly any of the many incidents when cops yell out “He’s got my gun!”
My long experience has taught me to ALWAYS be skeptical about the official story. When something bad happens, at least.
I do not see the downside to a truly independent investigation, especially one willing to deliver the Scottish Verdict to both sides.
Of course, this brings us back to the better question of why armed police have to be the first responders in such situations to begin with.
The sad truth is that the city now has a motive to support the cop’s story, right or wrong, to ward off civil liability. We need a better way. (And one exists.)
APD relesed the video of the incident. The man had hit his wife and left her with bruises and blood on her head. She had left the apartment becuase she was afraid he was going to continue to assault her. He was screaming and yelling at the neighbors to let him talk to her. He didnt have a weapon on him but he ended up grabbing the officers gun, at that point I dont care if youre white, green, blue or otherwise. All bets are off.
Ill say that the video of him attempting to grab the gun is blurred due to the officers camera being covered. Perhaps there could be a cover up there. No evidence for or against. I think this forum makes up a lot of fantasy stories to support their view of police. I myself dont really like boot lickers. I think cops think they can have a bad day and act however they want, but you guys are no better than them if you have to lie and ignore facts to get your point across.
APD released the video? *I* released the video. It’s on this story as an update. So you’re barking up the wrong tree.