Why was this guy in our country????

Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2005
Attacker facing felony counts DAY LABORER, 23, WIELDED MACHETE
By Sean Webby San Jose Mercury News

A day laborer shot by a Santa Clara sheriff's deputy Wednesday after attacking three people with a machete in Los Altos Hills will be facing several major felonies when he regains consciousness, officials said Thursday. More than 24 hours after the attacks, sheriff's investigators identified the man as 23-year-old Gerardo Casillas-Rodrigues.

Investigator said he had a previous arrest in San Diego on an immigration violation and has been detained at the border several times. But they have no found no record of a criminal history in the Bay Area or learned where he was living. Thursday, Casillas-Rodrigues remained under sedation after surgery at a local hospital police declined to identify.

Officials also released the identify of the officer who shot the suspect twice in the abdomen and once in the forearm. Sgt. William Tait, 48, who has been on the force for 26 years, will go on a standard administrative leave for a week, pending a departmental review of the shooting. He has no previous record of using deadly force, according to Lt. Luther Pugh of the sheriff's department.

Officers are legally allowed to use deadly force to protect their own lives or someone else's. In this case, the suspect reportedly advanced on Tait with the machete. ``This is certainly a case where the officer employed necessary force to protect himself,'' Pugh said.

The bizarre and bloody spree that began around 10:45 a.m. was sparked by a dispute over pay between the suspect and a co-worker who were on a landscaping job, according to Pugh.
Using a machete he may have found in a neighboring yard, Casillas-Rodrigues allegedly lopped off part of the co-worker's ear, slashed his forearm to the bone and almost severed a finger. Co-workers rushed the victim to a hospital, where he was recovering.

Meanwhile, Casillas-Rodrigues went to a nearby home and attacked an 80-year-old woman, cutting her head and bruising her until her son chased him away with a pellet gun. The widow was treated at a hospital and then released. The attacker then wandered down the street, taking swipes at passersby -- managing to strike at least one woman on the behind. She was not badly injured.

Finally Casillas-Rodrigues was confronted by a phalanx of police, who asked local construction workers to help translate their calls for him to surrender. The man -- described by witnesses as glassy-eyed and seemingly high or drunk -- did not respond, Pugh said. Finally, about 11:15 a.m., police cornered Casillas-Rodrigues, pepper-sprayed him, then shot him three times when he moved toward an officer. Pugh said only Tait fired his weapon.
Dave Tomkins, a deputy district attorney whose job it is to oversee officer-involved shootings, said he did not know what set the man off on his violent spree.

``Normal people who aren't high and not mentally ill normally comply with police,'' Tomkins said. ``Even anti-social types don't take on cops with guns.''