Grand jury issues scathing report against Brownsville Police Department

BROWNSVILLE - A state grand jury that no billed several Brownsville police officers involved in a November 2008 standoff that left a man dead, has issued a scathing report against the Brownsville Police Department.

In its Dec. 8 report, the grand jury states the department’s dispatch center relayed “erroneous information based on assumption rather than fact.”

The misinformation  ulitimately resulted in Ricardo Moreno being shot and killed. He was shot at his residence, 1643 East Van Buren, after he lunged at officers and stabbed one of them with a kitchen knife, police said.

The report also states the police department spent little time on the situation, failed to seek relief or aid from other agencies to assist its tiring officers, failed to thoroughly interview witnesses at the scene and that communication with the “subject were minimal, inadequate and in ffective.”

It also recommends that the dispatcher, who relayed the wrong information be terminated.

Police officers shot Moreno six times after repeated attempts to restrain him. police added.

Police Chief Carlos Garcia has said that his officers exercised discipline and restraint in the incident by incrementally escalating the use of force.