A Texas man named Ray Rosas who shot three cops breaking into his home during a no-knock raid last year was found not guilty Tuesday.
Rosas said he did not know the armed intruders were cops because his sight and hearing was affected by the flash grenade they tossed into his bedroom window.
After two hours of deliberations, the jury found him not guilty, according to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
The incident took place on February 19, 2015 as a Corpus Christi SWAT team was serving a search warrant on his home to arrest his nephew, who was suspected of selling drugs.
His nephew, Santiago Garcia, was not home during the raid, but police did find a small amount of drugs in the home, according to KZTV.
However, his mother and brother were home, the latter who suffers from dementia.
Rosas, whose home had been shot at in the past during drive-by shootings, believed he was being robbed, so he pulled out his gun and fired 15 times, striking three officers, all whom survived the shooting.
Rosas, who has been in jail since the incident, was charged with three counts of attempted capital murder, which could have sent him to prison for life.
But those charges were reduced during the trial to three counts of aggravated assault on a public official.
Prosecutors argued that Rosas was well aware they were cops because they yelled “police” at some point during the raid.
Ray Rosas
They also argued that Rosas should have known they were cops because he had a surveillance camera that allowed him to view outside him home from his bedroom.
But Rosas had always maintained he did not know they were cops, telling cops as he was being arrested that he did not know they were cops. He also told jailers the same thing that night as they were booking him.
His mugshot shows him with a black eye, indicating cops punched him during his arrest.
Rosas’ attorneys argued that he had been wary of attacks from gang members since testifying against one in 2001 for a violent crime committed on his home, resulting in him receiving death threats since then.
The three cops who were shot, Steven Reubelmann, Andrew Jordan and Steven Brown, all sustained minor injuries. They were treated at a local hospital and released a short time later, according to KRIS-TV.
The surveillance video that supposedly captured the raid has not been released.
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